Smite Amaterasu
Smite Adding New Character, Map, and Japanese Pantheon. Hi-Rez Studios

The “Smite” world online championship 2016 kicked off with significant changes made by developer Hi-Rez Studios. “Smite” Season 3 will introduce the warrior Amaterasu, who will be available on PC version of “Smite” on Jan. 12 and on the Xbox One in late February.

The new character, Amaterasu, is a warrior with team-oriented kit and some unique skills. From killing enemies with her sacred blade to impressive three strike combination attack in defense, Amaterasu has a Divine Presence active skill for self healing, along with the powers Heavenly Reflection, to get decreased damage during the battles.

With the arrival of Amaterasu, the first character from the Japanese pantheon, patch notes released by the developer via the official website of “Smite” indicate that a number of Japanese-themed skins are coming in the next week. The new skins include Cerulean Sky Amaterasu, Polaris Sol, King of the Deep Poseidon, Desert Omen Isis, Xing Tian Masteries, Kaiju Sobek and Harajuku Neith. The next characters planned to arrive in “Smite” are still unrevealed.

“Smite” is also getting the Chinese-themed Joust map. According to GameSpot, the map was already teased in 2015. With the new season, Hi-Rez is bringing an improved user experience by adding a new emote, voice packs, skins.The patch notes also confirm that the developer has made many improvements with existing gods Medusa, Thor and Ymir. Hi-Rez has removed T-Screen for technical and design reasons.

Hi-Rez has been developing PC games for years. For the first time, the studio has dabbled into the mobile game department and launched “Jetpack Fighter” for the iOS platform. The high-speed action platformer “Jetpack Fighter” allows players to collect new weapons and characters while making their ways through dozens of unique levels in game. "Jetpack Fighter" is available to download on Apple Store for select iOS devices.

SMITE - God Reveal - Amaterasu, The Shining Light (Credit: YouTube/SMITE by Hi-Rez Studios)