1047 Games has announced that it will cease active development on its two flagship titles, Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded. The decision marks a significant strategic pivot for the studio, which has spent the past decade concentrating on live‑service shooter experiences.
Beginning on September 3, both games will abandon their dedicated‑server infrastructure in favor of a peer‑to‑peer (P2P) model, allowing players to host matches themselves via a server browser. In a brief statement posted to X earlier today, the studio explained that the revenue generated by the two titles no longer justifies the ongoing expense of maintaining dedicated servers. While the company had continued to subsidise those costs in an effort to give the games a chance to grow their player bases, it ultimately concluded that the model had become "no longer sustainable." The developers expressed genuine affection for the projects, noting that they have enjoyed both playing and building the games alongside their communities, and lamented that they could not keep supporting them in the same way. Effective September 3, the matchmaking services and dedicated servers for Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded will be shut down.
Players will still be able to find and join matches, but the process will rely on a P2P architecture and a built‑in server browser rather than the studio‑run backend. As a parting gesture, Empulse will receive one final map addition and a price reduction across all regions, which the company has labelled the "final update" for the title. This move mirrors a similar transition that 1047 Games carried out with the original Splitgate last year. After its dedicated servers were taken offline, Splitgate shifted to a P2P system and remains playable on PC and consoles.
That earlier change demonstrated that the studio is willing to keep its games alive in a reduced capacity rather than pulling them from the market entirely. The background to this decision is rooted in a turbulent period for the company. Splitgate 2 launched in June 2025 amid a wave of controversy, including a politically charged "Make FPS Great Again" hat and a $145 cosmetic bundle that sparked criticism from the community.
Within weeks of the launch, 1047 Games announced layoffs affecting an undisclosed number of staff members. A further round of reductions followed a month later when the studio pushed the game back into a beta state, prompting a second wave of job cuts.
Empulse, positioned as a 6‑v‑6 movement shooter and often described as a spiritual successor to Titanfall, entered early access in June 2026. Its debut was quickly followed by multiple rounds of layoffs, indicating that the studio was already grappling with financial and staffing pressures even before the recent announcement. Co‑founders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian addressed the shift in direction, stating that after ten years of focusing on live‑service shooters, the studio’s priorities are evolving. They hinted that future projects could look markedly different from anything the public currently associates with 1047 Games.
"We started 1047 Games ten years ago because we love video games," the founders said. "Since then, more than 25 million people have played our games, and many of the people we've met along the way have become lifelong friends.
After ten years of focusing on live‑service shooters, our focus is changing. What we build next may look very different from what people expect from 1047 Games, but what has not changed is why we are here: we love making games.
We have learned a lot over the years, and we will carry those lessons into what we build next." The statement did not provide specifics about the current staffing situation, though it is known that the studio has already undergone several layoff rounds, the most recent occurring in July, shortly after Empulse’s launch. It remains uncertain whether the latest announcement will trigger additional reductions. By moving both titles to a peer‑to‑peer framework, 1047 Games aims to reduce operational costs while still offering a way for dedicated fans to enjoy the games.
However, the shift also means that players may experience higher latency, increased reliance on host stability, and potentially more limited matchmaking options compared to the previous dedicated‑server environment. The final map for Empulse and the global price cut are intended to provide a small token of appreciation for the community that has supported the game throughout its short lifespan.
Overall, the announcement underscores a broader industry trend where studios reassess the viability of live‑service models, especially when player numbers and revenue fail to meet the high overhead associated with dedicated server maintenance. For 1047 Games, the move signals the end of an era and the beginning of an exploratory phase that could lead to new genres, platforms, or business models, all while retaining the core passion for game development that motivated the founders a decade ago.