On June 6, 2025, 1047 Video games launched Splitgate 2. Now, lower than two months later, the developer is about to “unlaunch” it. It is also taking Splitgate 1 offline, and shedding 45 workers.
In the present day, 1047 revealed its plans to briefly wind down help on the sport it simply launched so the studio can go heads-down on what it says might be a full overhaul of Splitgate 2. The sport will stay playable throughout this time, and will nonetheless obtain its promised Chapter 3 replace and some bug fixes, however apart from that, Splitgate 2 as we all know it’s achieved.
…That’s, till early 2026, when the studio guarantees it is going to return with “huge, sweeping modifications.”
Whereas all this sounds fairly dire, it may not come as a shock to Splitgate 2 gamers. The sport launched to middling critiques, was mired in controversy from the bounce, and has since seen a steep drop-off in gamers and loads of criticism and frustration from those that caught round. On the time this piece was first drafted, a fast have a look at the primary web page of the Splitgate subreddit reveals virtually nothing however complaints in regards to the sport, memes in regards to the sport’s normal state, and numerous threads and hyperlinks to articles in regards to the sinking participant counts. It doesn’t paint a fairly image.
After I spoke to CEO Ian Proulx final week, he referenced one specific Reddit thread entitled “If you’ve stopped playing tell me why” that’s successfully a laundry checklist of participant complaints. He says he and the 1047 workforce learn every reply and catalogued them, scrutinizing what the most-cited points had been. He admits that Splitgate 2, because it launched, is “not a completed product but.”
“This does not really feel like a launched sport as a lot as we would like to faux it was, and clearly we mentioned it was. It looks like a beta. There’s bugs nonetheless. There’s options which are lacking that — clearly not each sport has to have each function — however there’s sure issues that must be in a completed product. There’s too many bugs, and we’re hitting the reset button.”
To be clear, he doesn’t assume Splitgate 2 is all unhealthy. He’s most happy with the gameplay, the gunplay and motion. However Proulx admits that there are too many different points, technical and structural, hindering gamers from having fun with the nice that’s there.
“I feel we have heard from the followers and from the players, they need one thing nearer to Splitgate 1,” he says. “And so I feel for us, this looks like a beta. It looks like a beta to me, it does not really feel like a launch. And I feel now we have to do a little bit of a reset to truly pay attention to the followers, to the players, and tackle the suggestions, repair the bugs, implement the options that ought to have been there on day one, but in addition make some huge modifications that the Splitgate neighborhood needs.”
What a Neighborhood Desires
What does the neighborhood need, then? Lots, Proulx says, however he boils it down to three main elements. The primary, he says, is demonstrated by that Reddit thread and summed up as “fundamental options.” Splitgate 2 wants a leaderboard. It wants higher development. There are a lot of seemingly little components lacking that add up to the sport feeling unfinished.
Second, he says Splitgate 2 wants extra portal partitions and extra alternatives for portals typically. 1047 already began including extra portal partitions within the sport’s alpha, however didn’t go far sufficient.
And third, Proulx thinks they want to make changes to sport modes, although he isn’t fairly certain what simply but.
“An enormous focus of ours is getting nearer to simply that basic enviornment sport mode expertise. I do not know precisely what that is going to appear like, however I feel we have achieved a lot of round-based modes, and we’ll nonetheless have some round-based modes, however gamers, they need to play the sport and shoot stuff and have a good time and possibly play the target.”
I ask Proulx if he intends to do something to change the sport’s present monetization mannequin. Splitgate 2 is free-to-play, however its in-game storefront has been heavily criticized on a number of fronts. Gamers have mentioned its season move is complicated and gates an excessive amount of content material behind purchases, they’ve identified that the “low cost” listings at launch had been misleading as to what objects truly value, and highlighted that awkward real-money-to-currency exchanges make it tough to perceive or precisely pay for simply what you need, and nothing additional.
Splitgate 2 will stay free-to-play, Proulx says, and gamers will preserve all of the objects they’ve already bought. He’s not doing refunds, he says. However when the sport comes again in 2026, he does need to “simplify” the monetization scenario. After I ask for specifics, Proulx says he’s nonetheless occupied with it and will possible shift primarily based on participant suggestions. However he’s at the moment contemplating a extra fundamental battle move, one you merely buy as soon as for a three-month interval or so, and obtain linear rewards from as you play extra of the sport.
Proulx isn’t absolutely sure proper now of precisely what Splitgate 2 wants to be, and needs to let the neighborhood form that call. He tells me that, this time, 1047 will do common playtests with the neighborhood on a separate department of this sport to gather suggestions, related to what the workforce did with Splitgate 1. “In the event that they hate it, we will say…nice, we’re not going to do this. Scrap it.”
I ask him if he has now, or ever has had, a robust imaginative and prescient for Splitgate 2 and the type of sport he needs to make. Does he assume it attainable the neighborhood may very well be mistaken about what’s greatest for the sport? Might his imaginative and prescient change into compromised by participant requests?
“If the neighborhood needs X, and that is what they need, it does not actually matter what I need,” Proulx says. “However even what I need, I imply, I feel a lot of what the neighborhood is asking for are issues that I agree with. I feel sure choices we made early on, I feel we virtually received a little bit too scientific about it. Splitgate 1, there was no principle, there was no technique. It was simply, let’s go make a enjoyable sport as a result of it is cool…And I feel with Splitgate 2…we type of began with all these design objectives, which is nice, however I feel we received a little bit too obsessive about, oh, let’s do that as a result of it checks that field, as opposed to similar to, properly, is it enjoyable? I do not know. It does not actually matter what you theorize about if it isn’t as enjoyable.”
Attempt, Attempt Once more
However how did Splitgate 2 find yourself right here within the first place?
In accordance to Proulx, the workforce was “too bold.” He says they tried to do an excessive amount of with Splitgate 2, between the sport’s enviornment mode, battle royale, and map creator, and ended up solely getting every of these issues achieved “80% as a substitute of 1 or two issues 100% of the way in which there.”
He additionally thinks one other concern was that 1047 saved Splitgate 2 far too secretive for too lengthy, out of a concern of leaks. Proulx mentions Apex Legends, which “shadow-dropped” seemingly out of nowhere to unimaginable success with no build-up in any respect, as an indicator that such a technique can work properly. However that’s additionally the other of what labored for Splitgate 1 – one thing Proulx suggests he ought to have discovered from for the sequel.
Talking of Splitgate 1, it’s not lengthy for this world. As a a part of this new doubling down on enhancing Splitgate 2, the primary sport’s servers might be shut down in about a month. 1047 says it’s “exploring the potential of supporting offline or peer-to-peer matches,” and that it intends to embrace a “devoted expertise” in Splitgate 2 that “delivers on the promise of the unique.” However within the short-term, Splitgate 1 might be no extra.
Per 1047, this determination was made as a result of it has value the studio “tons of of hundreds of {dollars} over the previous couple of years” to preserve Splitgate 1 on-line. It’s slicing prices in different methods, too. Final month,(*2*). With at present’s announcement, 45 extra workers might be let go, 28% of the present whole. “We positively have to get our burn charge down,” Proulx says after I ask him in regards to the firm’s monetary scenario. “There is not any doubt about it. I would say financially, fortunately, we’re in a place the place we will afford to do one thing like [the unlaunch] and take our time, however it’s going to take time. So we’re figuring that out.”
The fee-cutting measures do beg the query of each the veracity and, if the allegation is true, the knowledge of the corporate allegedly spending over $400,000 in influencer advertising and marketing forward of Splitgate 2’s launch. This was in accordance to an analysis posted on LinkedIn from Streamforge’s Nick Lombardi, utilizing “estimates primarily based on publicly accessible knowledge and market charges from Streamforge’s algorithm.” The alleged influencer spend was reported on by a variety of retailers, however Proulx responds after I ask him about it by saying that the article has “a lot of issues which are factually incorrect.”
“There are positively issues in that article which are correct,” he says. “However yeah, I would say it is, I do not know, 60% correct. Do I feel that that technique labored? I do not know. I imply, I feel that you’ve got to do a little little bit of every thing. I feel you will have to have some influencers, you will have to have some PR, you will have to have some paid promoting. I can inform you sure adverts ran extra effectively than others, however I feel it is all a part of the identical equation.”
Proulx goes on to say that influencer advertising and marketing is difficult – it’s arduous to say simply what number of customers a sport truly acquires from a given influencer selling a sport, making it tough to observe success.
“However I additionally assume you may’t purchase your self a profitable launch,” he provides. “Splitgate 1’s funds was subsequent to nothing, and it nonetheless had a actually massively profitable launch, and that was as a result of we had constructed a lot of goodwill with the neighborhood… I feel influencers and adverts will add gas to the fireplace, and in case you have a actually hype sport with a passionate neighborhood that looks like they’re being listened to, then that can amplify. And should you do not, then it will assist a little bit.”
Proulx is actually hoping to, in 2026, take a second crack at launching Splitgate 2. Apart from the problems with the sport itself, its first launch final month was marred by different controversies. It began when Proulx wore a hat that learn, “Make FPS Nice Once more” onstage on the sport’s Summer season Recreation Fest reveal, a (*1*). In a speech onstage on the identical occasion, Proulx remarked that he’s “uninterested in taking part in the identical Name of Obligation yearly,” which resulted in vast criticism from each builders and Name of Obligation followers. After which, upon launch, a $145 microtransaction bundle was soundly rebuked by players for its predatory similarities to the very video games Proulx and 1047 claimed to be pushing again in opposition to with Splitgate 2.
Proulx has since apologized for all the above controversies, and actively revoked the high-priced microtransactions. However now, with a second crack at releasing Splitgate 2 on the horizon, I ask Proulx if there’s something he intends to do in another way, and if he thinks these points meaningfully impacted the preliminary Splitgate 2 launch.
“Sure, I positively would’ve achieved issues in another way,” he says. “I’ll say I feel we might be within the place we’re in no matter any of that stuff. Clearly, I do not assume that stuff helped us, and I do not plan on doing any extra stunts like that, however I feel the fact is that if this was a 10 out of 10 sport, individuals would nonetheless be taking part in it and fortunately spending cash and grinding and telling their mates, and that is my feeling. And so I feel the previous is the previous, and we have made a lot of errors. Not simply that we have made many errors over the past 10 or nonetheless a few years it has been, and we continue learning and we iterate and we enhance, and that is what we’re going to preserve doing.”
As soon as Chapter 3 is out, Splitgate 2 will formally go quiet till early subsequent yr whereas the workforce rebuilds. That workforce might be smaller than earlier than, with a variety of mates and colleagues having misplaced their jobs by way of no fault of their very own. 1047 received’t be spending cash on Splitgate 1 servers, however it additionally possible received’t be making a lot off microtransactions, making funding a extra severe query. Some followers, inevitably, is not going to stick round to see if Splitgate 2 is a comeback story. Others stay completely delay by the sport’s launch controversies. It’s not precisely a cheery interval for 1047 Video games, however in Proulx’s eyes, the studio has been by way of worse. “We had a lot darker days” throughout Splitgate 1 improvement, he says. “A variety of virtually quitting, a lot of tears… So it is a robust street forward. In fact it’s, proper? This isn’t a straightforward trade.”
However he’s adamant that, regardless, he isn’t giving up on Splitgate.
“It is brutal, however we’re not going away. We’re not quitting. We completely love this. We love each single half about it, the nice and the unhealthy. And we have been right here earlier than and we have come out the opposite finish, and we’re going to simply preserve doing what we will to keep alive.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You could find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Acquired a story tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.