They do say pride comes before a fall, and despite donning a hat proclaiming “Make FPS Great Again” at Summer Game Fest earlier this year, studio founder Ian Proulx and 1047 Games are putting Splitgate 2 back into the beta box. Not only that, the studio is also taking the original Splitgate offline and laying off members of staff.
In a statement shared on Tuesday addressing the Splitgate 2 community, the studio admitted it had exited the sequel’s initial beta far too early. “We had ambitious goals with Splitgate 2, and in our excitement to share it with you, we bit off more than we could chew. 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,” 1047 Games wrote.
As such, Splitgate 2 is going back into beta, less than two months after its official launch. The studio will now do a significant amount of rework on areas including progression, as well as adding more portals to maps and “simplifying” monetisation.
This rebuilding phase will last “until early next year”, the developer said, and Splitgate 2 will remain playable during this time. The game’s third chapter will still ship, and the team has promised “fixes and high priority changes” for those who stick around. “We hope you will continue to play and support the game,” it wrote.
However, all of this has come with a human cost, and as a result of this decision the studio is laying off staff, and that’s after it already laid off other team members shortly after Splitgate 2’s initial launch. “This is heartbreaking. These are our teammates and our friends, and they helped build what we have today,” 1047 Games said of the studio’s most recent layoffs. According to IGN, the number of those affected totals 45.
In closing, 1047 Games wrote: “We’ve faced a lot of dark days and have made many mistakes, but we’ve learned a lot and are as determined as ever to make Splitgate as great as possible. Splitgate has been our life for 10 years, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
“We’ve got work to do, but we aren’t giving up.”
An update from the founders
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At the time of writing, Splitgate 2 has a 24-hour player peak of 1,706 on Steam. Its all-time peak concurrent player count was 25,785, though numbers have been steadily declining since its launch.
Last month, Splitgate 2 was lambasted by players after 1047 Games released a cosmetic bundle priced $80 USD, supposedly discounted from $145. In response, the studio slashed it to $40 and reduced prices across the store, pledging to “double down on being community first and listening to you guys”.
