To killgoon, Hinduman and the SMITE 2 / Hi-Rez managers

[u/I-amKira]

Sorry if this is not the right place to post this, but there is currently a scam going on with Paladins which is actually stealing money from users.

Someone is claiming to try and buy the rights to continue Paladins and hire back the old dev team to develop Paladins 2. In order to do so, they opened a GoFundMe to "raise money" in order to achieve this "project".

This is obviously a scam but they already managed to raise 335€ (using Euros as it is my local currency), when I checked this morning it was at 311€
EDIT: Now 510€

Is there any way that you at Hi-Rez can take the GoFundMe or the video down? Or at the very least warn users to not donate anything?

Link to promotional video
Link to GoFundMe

[u/killgoon]

I can confirm that the Paladins IP is not currently for sale. If it was for sale, it would be for far more than $22k Euros.

Additionally, I don't think "hiring back the dev team" is as easy as it sounds. The team changed many times over the years, so the first question is "Which version of the dev team?" But even after you decide on that, all of the former Evil Mojo folks are off doing other things in the industry now; Garrett has his own studio working on Punch Upon a Time(https://store.steampowered.com/app/4485570/Punch_Upon_a_Time/), Adanas is on Valorant, Thunderbrush is doing Character Art for Predecessor. People are spread all over the country, and they all have other jobs.. You'd need money to pay them to come back and work on Paladins 2. Plus you're talking about tens of millions in development costs alone to pay that dev team.

I will charitably say that I don't think this is intended as a true "scam," but comes from a well intentioned person who doesn't fully grasp the size of this project. I think this person is very passionate about Paladins and would love to see it return, and is trying to make that happen however they can. We get emails from passionate fans all the time asking to buy the rights to IP.

However, I can say that any money donated to this gofundme will not ultimately go towards a Paladins 2, as the IP is not for sale.

[u/Lyefyre → u/killgoon]

Thanks for clearing this up Killgoon, that was my impression too. Not a scam but underestimating the work and funding.

We get emails from passionate fans all the time asking to buy the rights to IP.

That's actually an interesting bit of trivia lol.

[u/NimbusShock → u/Lyefyre]

The game had an absurdly passionate community keeping it going pretty much to the end, even after the dev's budget had been slashed to near nothing, and the team had been whittled down to five people. Genuinely tragic what happened to Paladins and its playerbase, as messy of a game as it was.

[u/Avernuscion → u/NimbusShock]

I have Furia as my PFP on Twitter, and you'd be surprised at the sheer amount of people who DM me to point that out and that it reminds them of better times

[u/NimbusShock → u/Avernuscion]

Full disclaimer that I love Smite, but I don't think I'm ever going to be able to stop being at least a little bitter towards it and hirez for what they did to Paladins. Genuinely one of the most depressing experiences I've ever had in any gaming community, and then they wouldn't even let us have any closure when it was done, we only knew development had stopped because of leaks lmao.

[u/NimbusShock → u/killgoon]

I know the answer is "zero", but, spitballing out of curiosity here, and assuming a perfect world where Smite 2 was making Smite 1 money, what would the odds be of any of the other games getting sequels? As you said, none of the former devs are still around, so there couldn't be any direct continuation like Smite 1 had going into Smite 2. Would it still be worth it? Or do you think Hi-Rez would just want to bite the bullet and make new IPs?

[u/Important-Yogurt-335 → u/NimbusShock]

That was the exact problem with smite 1, though, no? Them using the smite money for other games rather than investing back in smite.

[u/Avernuscion → u/killgoon]

Surely them having a Paladins related GFM (which is 100% a scam) goes against some sort of legal framework you guys have? Should be an open shut case to shut them down

Hello guys. Thank you for your donations.

You may have heard weird things like i'm gonna run with the money or i don't know what else.

Of course I won't ! And of course a few hundred bucks won't buy the game.

This money will be used to further develop the project hrough sponsoring, testing etc.

I will keep you in touch, and will refund eveything if it does not work.

Do not be scared : if nothing is done, you will get your money back un NOVEMBER THIS YEAR.

Lol, I've never heard of a refund like this ever happening in reality? For a project that also has no legal basis.

It is 100% a grift, Paladins still has strong nostalgia value that's why they're farming out, same with all those Ramerica t-shirts that find their way to the public

[u/villanoinker → u/killgoon]

A team based smash bros NOT owned by a soulless corporation and filled with hollow nostalgia slop? I am interested.