Splitgate, a sci-fi arena shooter, exploded in popularity after it arrived on consoles last summer, two years after it first appeared on PC. It racked up over 10 million downloads in a month thanks to its mix of Halo and Portal gameplay.
It didn’t hurt that it was free to play. However, developer 1047 Games is now reducing feature development, effectively putting the game on hold. Splitgate will exit beta with the next update, but it will be the game’s “last major iteration,” according to the studio.
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Splitgate was far more successful than 1047 anticipated. The studio attempted to turn a “college dorm dream project into a AAA game” capable of competing with the industry’s biggest titles.
“However, as we’ve brought on top-tier talent from across the industry, we’ve spent a lot of our time attempting to rework old content and systems that were originally built by a handful of people,” 1047 said in a statement.
“In a way, we’re bailing water while also attempting to keep everyone who bought a ticket to board our ship happy while also attempting to turn our boat into a rocket ship.”
Important announcement from 1047 Games about the future of Splitgate: pic.twitter.com/5E0YG1DWQm
— Splitgate (@Splitgate) September 2, 2022
The studio is now concentrating on its next project. It will be another free-to-play shooter with portals set in the same universe. 1047 will create the upcoming game from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5. Meanwhile, Splitgate, which has over 18 million downloads, will remain available for the foreseeable future.
As a thank you to players, when the final season begins on September 15th, 1047 will include a free battle pass with an infinite number of levels as well as new skins and characters. Splitgate will continue to receive fixes and minor updates from 1047, but no new features will be added after the next major patch.
“After careful consideration and much deliberation the 1047 team has determined that in order to build the game that fans deserve — and to build it in a way that isn’t trying to retrofit our existing game — we are turning our attention away from iterative, smaller updates and going all-in to focus on a new game in the Splitgate universe which will present revolutionary, not just evolutionary, changes to the gameplay,” 1047 Games CEO and Splitgate creator Ian Proulx said in a statement.
“Splitgate will remain online and supported for our dedicated community who have been the backbone of our studio from our earliest playtests on PC. Our community means everything to us and we can’t wait to share what’s next with them.”
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Meanwhile, in an FAQ, 1047 acknowledged that players put time, effort and money into acquiring skins and other items. While it suggests that fans won’t be able to carry those over to the next game, “we want to reward your efforts and time in Splitgate and we take that seriously.
“How we will do that is not decided at this time, but know that it is something we are focused on as we discuss the next game.” It’s also not clear whether the Splitcoin virtual currency will transfer over.
