1047 Games announced that it will cease active development on its two flagship titles, Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, and will move both games to a peer‑to‑peer (P2P) hosting model as of September 3. The decision marks a significant strategic pivot for the studio, which has spent the past decade concentrating on live‑service shooter experiences. In a brief statement posted to X earlier today, the company explained that the revenue generated by the two games no longer covers the ongoing expenses associated with maintaining dedicated server infrastructure.
While the studio had continued to fund those servers in the hope that the titles might eventually become self‑sustaining, it concluded that the model had become "no longer sustainable" and that a change was inevitable. "We have loved working on these games, playing them, and building them with this community, and we wish we could continue supporting them," the developers wrote, underscoring the emotional connection they feel toward the projects and their player bases. Effective September 3, the dedicated servers and official matchmaking services for Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded will be shut down.
Players will instead rely on a P2P system that uses a server browser, allowing them to host their own matches and discover others’ sessions. To give the community a sense of closure, Empulse will receive a final map addition and a price reduction across all regions as part of what the studio has dubbed the "final update" for the title. This move mirrors the path taken with the original Splitgate, which transitioned to P2P hosting last year after its dedicated servers were decommissioned. That version of Splitgate remains fully functional today, even on console platforms, demonstrating that a P2P approach can keep a game alive despite the loss of central server support.
The background to these developments is worth noting. Splitgate 2 launched in June 2025 amid a wave of controversy, including the release of a politically charged "Make FPS Great Again" hat and a pricey $145 cosmetic bundle.
Within weeks of launch, 1047 Games announced a round of layoffs, and a month later the title was rolled back to beta status, prompting a second wave of staff reductions. The turbulence surrounding Splitgate 2 highlighted the challenges of sustaining a live‑service shooter in a competitive market. Empulse, billed as a 6v6 movement‑focused shooter and often described as a spiritual successor to Titanfall, entered early access in June 2026. Its launch was quickly followed by multiple rounds of layoffs, signaling that the studio was already feeling financial pressure even before the recent announcement.
Founders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian used the statement to signal a broader shift in the company’s direction. After ten years of building live‑service shooters, they said the studio’s focus is "changing" and that future projects may look very different from anything 1047 Games has produced before. "We started 1047 Games ten years ago because we love video games," the co‑founders wrote. "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 announcement did not provide specific details about the current staffing situation, although the company has already undergone several rounds of layoffs, the most recent occurring in July, just weeks after Empulse’s early‑access debut.
It remains unclear whether the shift away from live‑service shooters will trigger additional reductions or whether the studio will stabilize its workforce as it re‑orients its development pipeline. Industry observers see this as part of a larger trend where mid‑size studios, after investing heavily in live‑service infrastructure, are reassessing the viability of that model in a market dominated by larger publishers with deeper pockets. Maintaining dedicated servers, providing constant content updates, and supporting a robust matchmaking ecosystem can become financially untenable if a game fails to achieve a critical mass of paying players. For the community, the transition to P2P hosting means that while the official matchmaking lobbies will disappear, players can still enjoy the core gameplay by hosting their own sessions or joining friends through the new server browser.
The final map for Empulse and the price cut are intended as goodwill gestures, giving fans a tangible reason to keep playing even as the official support infrastructure winds down. In summary, 1047 Games is winding down active development on Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, moving both titles to peer‑to‑peer hosting on September 3, and signaling a strategic departure from the live‑service shooter model that has defined the studio for a decade. The company’s leadership emphasizes a continued passion for game creation, even as they prepare to explore new genres or development approaches that may diverge from the expectations set by their previous titles.