1047 Games the developers behind the original Splitgate and now Splitgate 2 have been struggling very publicly as of late, and the news that they have made the decision to return Spligate 2 to playable beta form and as a result have laid off staff is unfortunately not very surprising. This marks the second round of layoffs as the studio cut staff shortly after the launch of the game. 1047 games released Splitgate 2 during Summer Games Fest with a rage bait fueled presentation where the head of the studio got on stage wearing a familiar, eye-catching hat that read “Make FPS’s Great Again.”
He also went on to insult Call of Duty and infer that Splitgate 2 would be the next big thing in the popular multiplayer shooter genre. This unsurprisingly upset many people, and the head of the studio apologized for the speech, essentially admitting that it was a publicity stunt to get people’s attention. I suppose it worked, but probably not in the way the studio wanted. With that said, one of our writers really enjoyed his time reviewing the game.
It has only been a couple of months since Splitgate 2 launched and now it is not only back in beta form, but it will also not be officially re-released until an unknown date in early 2026. Also, in this announcement 1047 Games has stated that they will be ceasing all support for the original Splitgate as the servers are too expensive for them to maintain while shifting focus to the sequel.
Excerpts from Developer Statement: (Splitgate 2) launched too early and may have been too ambitious. “We rushed certain features, made some boneheaded mistakes, and most importantly – we didn’t give you the polished, portal-filled mayhem you fell in love with.”
From everything I have seen from 1047’s actions and statements, they really have shot themselves in the foot in more ways than one. Even though Call of Duty is an industry giant and popular target of criticism, insulting it and inferring that Splitgate 2 was going to save the genre came off as arrogant, mean-spirited, and set the expectations for the launch of the game far too high. Now that Splitgate 2 has been put back into beta until early next year, as well as having two rounds of layoffs in one month, Splitgate 2 and 1047’s future has never looked this bleak and uncertain.
