Studio 1047 Games will stop active work on the online shooters Splitgate: Arena Reloaded and Empulse. The announcement came from founders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian.
Their short version: neither title brings in enough cash to cover the cost of dedicated servers. The studio had been burning funds to give the projects more time to catch on, but the team can't keep that up. Still, the devs want the games to keep being playable for anyone who cares.
On Sept 3 both Arena Reloaded and Empulse will move to a peer-to-peer (P2P) model with a server browser. Matchmaking and dedicated servers will be shut off; players can create matches and invite friends (so lobbies, private games, etc., will remain). Empulse will also get one final new map and a permanent price drop across regions.
Player numbers on Steam were low for both shooters.
After a decade of running service-first projects, 1047 Games is switching course. Proulx and Bagamian say the next thing the team tries will probably look very different from previous releases — equal parts apprehension and curiosity, it seems.
Big thanks to everyone who worked on Splitgate, Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, and Empulse — including folks no longer with 1047. You put years (and a lot of hrs) into these games; we appreciate what you helped build.
And thanks to everyone who played, left feedback, made videos, argued about balance, found wild movement tricks, or dragged friends into the lobby.
Thanks for the last ten years. Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian, co-founders of 1047 Games
As a reminder, Splitgate: Arena Reloaded is available on PC (Steam, EGS), PlayStation 4|5, and Xbox One / Series X|S, while Empulse is on PC (Steam), PS5, and Xbox Series. Arena Reloaded, originally released as Splitgate 2, fought for survival for more than a year, whereas Empulse lasted only two months.