1047 Games has announced that it will stop 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 concentrating on live‑service shooter experiences.
In a brief statement posted to X earlier today, the developers 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 subsidize those costs in the hope that the player bases would eventually expand enough to become self‑sustaining, it ultimately concluded that this approach had become "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 post read, underscoring the bittersweet nature of the announcement.
Effective September 3, the dedicated servers and official matchmaking services for both Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded will be shut down. Players will instead rely on a P2P system that includes a server browser, allowing individuals to host their own matches and locate others who are doing the same. As a parting gesture, Empulse will receive one final new map and a price reduction across all regions, which the studio has described as 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 decommissioned, Splitgate shifted to a P2P architecture and remains playable on PC and consoles, albeit without the centralized matchmaking that once defined the experience. The background to these changes is worth noting. Splitgate 2 launched in June 2025 amid a wave of controversy, including a polarising "Make FPS Great Again" hat and a $145 cosmetic bundle that drew criticism from parts of the community. Within a month of release, 1047 Games announced a round of layoffs, the size of which was not disclosed.
A further month later the company placed the title back into a beta state and initiated a second round of staff reductions, signaling that the project was struggling to meet its financial expectations. Empulse, marketed as a 6‑v‑6 movement shooter and positioned as a spiritual successor to Titanfall, entered early access in June 2026. Its launch was quickly followed by multiple layoff waves, reflecting the studio's difficulty in sustaining development costs for a game that had yet to achieve a stable, revenue‑positive player base.
Founders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian used the announcement to outline 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 what fans have come to expect from 1047 Games.
"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 statement did not provide specifics about the current staffing situation, though the company has already undergone several rounds of layoffs, the most recent occurring in July—just weeks after Empulse's early‑access launch. It remains uncertain whether the latest announcement will precipitate additional reductions.
In practical terms, the shift to peer‑to‑peer hosting means that players will need to be more proactive in finding matches. The server browser will list available host sessions, and community tools such as Discord or forum groups are likely to become the primary avenues for coordinating games. While this model reduces the studio's operational costs, it can introduce challenges such as increased latency, potential for cheating, and a reliance on player‑hosted infrastructure.
For fans of Empulse, the final map addition and price cut provide a modest send‑off, but the lack of ongoing content updates signals the end of the game's evolution. Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, which had been positioned as a competitive arena shooter with a unique portal mechanic, will similarly see its official matchmaking disappear, leaving the community to maintain the game's viability through private lobbies and community‑run tournaments. Overall, 1047 Games' decision reflects a broader industry trend where studios reassess the viability of live‑service models, especially when server costs outpace revenue.
By moving to a P2P framework, the company can keep its games accessible without the financial burden of dedicated servers, while freeing up resources to explore new genres or development approaches. The next chapter for the studio remains undefined, but the founders' emphasis on passion for game creation suggests that whatever comes next will be driven by creative ambition rather than purely by market pressures.