1047 Games 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 clear pivot for the studio after a decade of concentrating on live‑service shooter experiences. In a brief statement posted to X earlier today, the developer explained that neither title was generating sufficient revenue to justify the ongoing expense of maintaining dedicated server infrastructure. While the company had continued to subsidise those costs in the hope that the games might eventually become self‑sustaining, it now concludes that this approach is "no longer viable." "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.
"Unfortunately, the financial realities force us to change course." Effective September 3, the dedicated servers and official matchmaking services for both Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded will be decommissioned. Players will instead rely on a P2P system that uses a server browser, allowing anyone to host a match and other users to join. This shift ensures that the games remain playable even without the studio‑run backend.
As a parting gesture, Empulse will receive one final map addition and a universal price reduction across all regions, which the studio has described as the "final update" for the title. The move mirrors what 1047 Games did with the original Splitgate last year.
After the shutdown of its dedicated servers, the first version of Splitgate transitioned to P2P hosting and continues to be accessible on PC and consoles. That earlier transition demonstrated that the company can keep a game alive without central servers, albeit with a reliance on the community to host sessions.
Splitgate 2, released in June 2025, quickly became embroiled in controversy. The launch featured a "Make FPS Great Again" hat reminiscent of political slogans and a $145 cosmetic bundle that many players deemed excessively priced. Within weeks, the studio announced a round of layoffs, the exact number of affected employees was not disclosed. A month later, the title was rolled back to a beta state, prompting a second wave of staff reductions.
These events underscored the financial pressures the company faced in trying to sustain a high‑cost live‑service model. Empulse, billed as a 6‑v‑6 movement shooter and a spiritual successor to Titanfall, entered early access in June 2026. Its launch was followed by multiple layoff rounds in rapid succession, reflecting similar fiscal challenges. Despite the hype surrounding its parkour‑style combat and futuristic setting, the game struggled to attract a large enough player base to offset server costs.
Co‑founders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian used the announcement to signal a broader strategic shift. "We started 1047 Games ten years ago because we love video games," they 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. However, 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 uncertain whether the September transition will trigger additional reductions or if the studio will stabilize its workforce as it re‑evaluates its development roadmap. Industry observers note that the shift away from dedicated servers is becoming more common among mid‑size studios that lack the scale to sustain the high operating costs of live‑service back‑ends. By moving to a P2P model, developers can dramatically cut ongoing expenses, though they also relinquish some control over matchmaking quality, cheat prevention, and overall player experience.
For fans, the change means they will need to be more proactive in hosting games and may encounter higher latency or increased susceptibility to hacking, issues that dedicated servers typically mitigate. Looking ahead, 1047 Games has hinted that its next project could depart from the shooter genre entirely, or at least adopt a different service model. The founders emphasized that their core motivation—creating enjoyable games—remains unchanged, even if the business approach does.
Whether this signals a move toward single‑player experiences, smaller‑scale multiplayer titles, or even ventures into emerging technologies such as cloud gaming remains to be seen. In summary, 1047 Games is winding down active development on Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, transitioning both to peer‑to‑peer hosting on September 3, and offering a final content update and price cut for Empulse. The decision reflects broader financial pressures and a strategic pivot away from the costly live‑service shooter model that defined the studio for a decade. While the future direction of the company is still vague, the founders assure the community that their passion for game creation endures, and that lessons learned from the past will inform whatever comes next.