1047 Games 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) networking model as of September 3. The decision marks a clear pivot for the studio after a decade of concentrating on live‑service first‑person shooters. 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 those costs in hopes that the titles would eventually become self‑sustaining, it concluded that this approach had become financially untenable. "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 team feels toward its player base despite the hard business realities. 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 anyone to host a match and others to join. To give the community a final send‑off, Empulse will receive one last map and a price reduction across all regions as part of what the studio calls the "final update" for the title. This transition mirrors the path taken by the original Splitgate, which also moved to P2P hosting after its dedicated servers were decommissioned last year.
That version remains fully playable on PC and consoles, proving that a community can continue to enjoy a game even after official server support ends. Splitgate 2, released in June 2025, quickly became a lightning rod for controversy. The launch featured a politically charged "Make FPS Great Again" hat and a $145 cosmetic bundle that drew criticism from many corners of the gaming community.
Within a month of release, 1047 Games announced a round of layoffs, and another wave followed a month later when the title was rolled back to beta status. Those staffing cuts signaled deeper troubles within the studio. Empulse, marketed as a 6‑v‑6 movement shooter and described by its creators as a spiritual successor to Titanfall, entered early access in June 2026.
The game’s debut was followed by several rounds of layoffs within weeks, further highlighting the financial strain the studio was experiencing. Co‑founders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian used the announcement to outline a broader strategic shift.
After ten years of building live‑service shooters, they said the company’s focus is now "changing" and that future projects may look very different from anything fans have come to associate with 1047 Games. "We started 1047 Games ten years ago because we love video games," the duo 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 multiple rounds of layoffs, the most recent occurring in July, just weeks after Empulse launched. It remains uncertain whether the latest announcement will trigger additional reductions.
The move to peer‑to‑peer hosting is not without its challenges. Dedicated servers typically offer more stable connections, lower latency, and better cheat‑prevention mechanisms. By shifting to a P2P model, players may experience increased lag, host‑advantage issues, and a greater reliance on community moderation to keep matches fair.
However, the change also reduces operational costs dramatically, allowing the studio to keep the games playable without the financial burden of server farms. Industry observers note that 1047 Games' decision reflects a broader trend among mid‑size developers who have experimented with live‑service models only to discover that sustaining them over the long term can be risky without a massive player base. The high overhead of server maintenance, continuous content updates, and aggressive monetisation expectations often outweigh the potential revenue, especially when a title fails to achieve breakout success.
For fans of Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, the transition means they will need to adapt to a new way of finding matches. The server browser will list active hosts, and community groups are likely to form around dedicated Discord servers or Reddit threads to coordinate games.
Some players may choose to set up private servers or use third‑party matchmaking tools to mitigate the downsides of P2P networking. Looking ahead, 1047 Games has hinted that its next venture could diverge sharply from the shooter genre. While details remain scarce, the founders emphasized that their core passion—creating enjoyable gaming experiences—remains unchanged.
Whether that passion will manifest as a new IP, a return to a different genre, or perhaps a partnership with another studio is still to be seen. 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 providing a final content update for Empulse.
The shift underscores a strategic retreat from the live‑service shooter model that defined the studio for a decade, and it sets the stage for a potentially new direction in the company's creative output.