1047 Games announced that it will stop active development on both Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, moving the two titles to a peer‑to‑peer (P2P) hosting model. The decision marks a 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 neither title is generating sufficient revenue to justify the continued expense of dedicated server infrastructure. While the studio had previously absorbed those costs in the hopes that the games would eventually become self‑sustaining, it now acknowledges that maintaining the servers is "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 announcement read, underscoring the bittersweet nature of the move.
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 architecture paired with a server‑browser interface, allowing community members to host their own matches and discover others’ sessions. As a parting gesture, Empulse will receive one final map addition and a universal price reduction across all regions, which the studio described as the game's "final update." This is not the first time 1047 Games has migrated a title to a P2P system. The original Splitgate made the same transition last year after its dedicated servers were shut down, and the game remains fully playable on PC and console under the new model.
Splitgate 2 launched in June 2025 amid a swirl of controversy. The release was accompanied by a polarising "Make FPS Great Again" hat and a $145 cosmetic bundle that sparked heated debate within the community. Within a month of launch, the studio announced a round of layoffs affecting an undisclosed number of staff members. A further month later, the company reverted the title back to beta status and initiated a second wave of workforce 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. The title’s debut was quickly followed by several rounds of layoffs, reflecting the studio’s ongoing financial strain. Co‑founders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian said the announcement signals a broader change in direction after ten years spent building live‑service shooters. "What we build next may look very different from what people expect from 1047 Games," they noted, while reaffirming that their core motivation—making games they love—remains unchanged.
"Since we started ten years ago, more than 25 million people have played our games, and many of the friends we’ve made along the way have become lifelong connections. We have learned a lot, and we will carry those lessons into our next projects." The public statement did not detail the current staffing situation, though the company has already undergone multiple layoff cycles, the most recent occurring in July, shortly after Empulse’s launch.
It remains uncertain whether the latest announcement will precipitate additional reductions. The shift away from dedicated servers reflects a growing trend among mid‑size developers who find the cost of maintaining high‑availability infrastructure increasingly untenable without a robust, continuously growing player base. Peer‑to‑peer hosting places the responsibility for server performance and stability on individual players, which can lead to a more fragmented experience but also reduces overhead for the publisher. For fans of Empulse, the final map and price cut may provide a modest incentive to explore the game before the transition fully takes effect.
Splitgate: Arena Reloaded’s community, which has already adapted to P2P hosting, will likely continue to organize matches through the server browser, albeit with the usual challenges of latency and host‑migration that accompany decentralized networking. Looking ahead, 1047 Games has hinted that its next venture could diverge significantly from the shooter genre that defined its brand. While details remain scarce, the founders’ emphasis on "changing" focus suggests the studio may explore new IPs, possibly venturing into different gameplay styles or platforms.
Their statement stresses that the passion for game creation endures, even as the business model evolves. In summary, 1047 Games is winding down active development on Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, shifting both titles to peer‑to‑peer hosting on September 3. The move follows a period of financial pressure, multiple layoff rounds, and mixed reception to recent releases.
The studio’s leadership frames the change as part of a larger strategic realignment after a decade of live‑service shooter development, promising that future projects may look markedly different while still being driven by a love of game making.