1047 Games has 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. The decision marks a significant strategic pivot for the studio after a decade of focusing on live‑service shooter experiences. In a brief statement posted to X earlier today, the developers explained that neither Empulse nor Splitgate: Arena Reloaded has generated sufficient revenue to offset the ongoing expenses associated with maintaining dedicated server infrastructure. While the company continued to subsidize those costs in the hope that the games might eventually become self‑sustaining, it ultimately concluded that the financial model was "no longer sustainable." "We have loved working on these games, playing them, and building them with this community, and we wish we could continue supporting them," the studio wrote, underscoring the emotional attachment the team feels toward its player base despite the hard business realities.
Effective September 3, the dedicated servers and official matchmaking services for both titles will be decommissioned. Players will instead rely on a P2P system that includes a built‑in server browser, allowing individuals to host their own matches and discover others' sessions. To give Empulse a proper send‑off, the team will release one final map and apply a universal price reduction across all regions as part of what it has dubbed the game's "final update." This transition mirrors a similar move the studio made with the original Splitgate last year.
After its dedicated servers were shut down, Splitgate migrated to a P2P architecture and remains fully playable on PC and console platforms, proving that a community can continue to thrive even without centralized matchmaking. The background to these changes is rooted in a turbulent period for 1047 Games. Splitgate 2 launched in June 2025 amid a storm of controversy, including the release of a politically charged "Make FPS Great Again" hat and a $145 cosmetic bundle that drew criticism from many players. Within weeks of the launch, the company announced a wave of layoffs, the size of which was not disclosed.
A month later, the title was rolled back to a beta state, prompting a second round of staff reductions. 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, reflecting the studio's ongoing struggle to balance development costs with revenue streams. Co‑founders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian used the announcement to signal a broader shift in the company's creative direction. "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," they wrote.
The founders highlighted that more than 25 million players have experienced their games over the past decade, and many of those relationships have turned into lasting friendships. While the press release did not detail the current staffing situation, it is worth noting that 1047 Games has already endured several rounds of layoffs, the most recent occurring in July—just weeks after Empulse's early‑access launch. Whether the latest announcement will trigger additional reductions remains uncertain. The move away from dedicated servers is part of a larger industry trend where smaller studios, especially those that rely on live‑service models, reassess the viability of maintaining costly backend infrastructure.
Peer‑to‑peer hosting reduces operational expenses dramatically, as the burden of server upkeep shifts to the players themselves. However, it also introduces challenges such as increased latency, potential for cheating, and a reliance on community‑driven moderation.
For players, the transition means that the experience of finding matches may become more variable. Those with strong internet connections and the ability to host games will likely see smoother gameplay, while others may encounter longer wait times or difficulty locating suitable opponents. The inclusion of a server browser is intended to mitigate these issues by giving users more control over which hosts they join. From a business perspective, the decision allows 1047 Games to reallocate resources toward new projects that may not fit the live‑service mold.
The founders hinted that future titles could explore different genres or delivery models, potentially focusing on single‑player narratives, episodic content, or smaller‑scale multiplayer experiences that do not require massive server farms. In summary, 1047 Games is winding down active development on Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, transitioning both games to peer‑to‑peer hosting on September 3. The studio will provide a final map and price cut for Empulse, while the broader shift reflects a strategic retreat from the high‑cost live‑service shooter market that has defined the company for the past ten years. The upcoming period will likely see the studio redefining its creative vision, with the possibility of new, unexpected game concepts on the horizon.