Smite developer Hi-Rez is expanding into Europe

Smite developer Hi-Rez Studios is opening its first European office this month in the United Kingdom (Brighton, specifically) and bringing on former Warner Brothers Interactive publishing VP Veronique Lallier to lead it.

This is, notably, Hi-Rez's first international expansion. The company is pitching it as an effort to better support its European customers, primarily the players of its free-to-play PC MOBA Smite, while the bulk of Hi-Rez's game development work will still take place at its Atlanta, Georgia headquarters.

While Smite continunes to be the studio's standout success, it maintains other free-to-play online games like Tribes Ascend and is currently developing F2P shooter Paladins: Knights of the Realm (pictured).

It also recently released its first mobile game, the F2P platformer Jetpack Fighter.