1047 Games has announced that it will cease active development on its two flagship titles, Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, and will move both projects to a peer‑to‑peer (P2P) hosting model as of September 3. 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 company explained that the revenue generated by the two games no longer covers the expenses associated with maintaining dedicated server infrastructure.
While the studio had continued to subsidize these costs in the hopes that the titles would eventually become self‑sustaining, it concluded that this approach had become "no longer sustainable" from a financial standpoint. "We have loved working on these games, playing them, and building them with this community, and we wish we could continue supporting them," the announcement read, underscoring the emotional attachment the developers feel toward their player base despite the hard business decision. Effective September 3, the dedicated servers and centralized matchmaking services for Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded will be decommissioned.
Players will instead rely on a P2P system complemented by an in‑game server browser, allowing them to host their own matches and discover others' sessions. To give the community a proper send‑off, Empulse will receive one final map addition and a price reduction across all regions as part of what the studio has termed 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 shut down.
That version remains fully playable on PC and console, demonstrating that a P2P model can keep a game alive even after official server support ends. Splitgate 2, released in June 2025, quickly became embroiled in controversy. The launch featured a politically charged "Make FPS Great Again" hat and a $145 cosmetic bundle that sparked backlash from portions of the community. Within a month of release, 1047 Games announced an undisclosed round of layoffs, and a further wave of staff reductions followed when the title was pushed back into a beta state just weeks later.
Empulse, billed as a 6‑v‑6 movement shooter and often described as a spiritual successor to Titanfall, entered early access in June 2026. The title's launch was similarly turbulent, with multiple rounds of layoffs occurring within weeks of its debut.
Despite the challenges, Empulse garnered a modest following thanks to its fast‑paced parkour mechanics and high‑skill gunplay. Co‑founders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian used the announcement to signal a broader shift in the studio's creative direction. After ten years of building live‑service shooters, they said the company's focus is "changing" and that future projects may look very different from what fans have come to expect from 1047 Games. "We started 1047 Games ten years ago because we love video games," the 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 statement did not provide specifics about the current staffing situation, though the company has already undergone several layoff cycles, the most recent occurring in July, just weeks after Empulse's early‑access launch.
It remains unclear whether the cessation of active development will trigger additional reductions. Industry observers note that the shift away from dedicated servers reflects a broader trend among mid‑size developers who find the ongoing operational costs of live‑service infrastructure increasingly burdensome, especially when player retention falls short of expectations.
By moving to P2P hosting, 1047 Games can keep the games playable with minimal overhead, while freeing up resources to explore new genres or business models. For the community, the transition means that matchmaking will become more decentralized. Players will need to manually select or host servers, which may introduce longer wait times or variability in connection quality, but it also offers greater control over match settings and the potential for community‑run tournaments. In summary, 1047 Games is winding down active development on Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, shutting down dedicated servers, and shifting to a peer‑to‑peer architecture.
The move underscores a strategic reorientation away from live‑service shooters after a decade of operation, and hints at a new creative direction that could diverge significantly from the studio's previous portfolio. The long‑term impact on the player base will depend on how well the community adapts to the new hosting model and whether the studio's next venture can capture the imagination of gamers in a rapidly evolving market.