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) networking model. 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 developers explained that the revenue generated by the two titles no longer covers the ongoing expenses of maintaining dedicated server infrastructure. While the company had continued to subsidize those costs in an effort to give each game a chance to find a larger audience, it ultimately concluded that the model 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 post read, underscoring the studio's affection for its player base despite the hard choice. Effective September 3, the dedicated servers and official matchmaking services for Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded will be shut down.
From that date forward, both titles will rely on P2P hosting combined with a built‑in server browser, allowing players to host their own matches and locate others without the need for central servers. As part of what the company called the "final update" for Empulse, the game will receive one last new map and a price reduction across all regions.
This transition mirrors the path taken by the original Splitgate last year. After its dedicated servers were retired, the original title shifted to a P2P framework and remains fully playable on PC and consoles. The move demonstrated that a community can sustain a game without the overhead of proprietary server farms, albeit with some trade‑offs in latency and matchmaking convenience.
Splitgate 2, released in June 2025, quickly became mired in controversy. The launch featured a politically charged "Make FPS Great Again" hat and a $145 cosmetic bundle that sparked backlash across the gaming community. Within weeks, 1047 Games announced a round of layoffs, the size of which was not disclosed.
A month later the studio placed the game back into a beta state and initiated a second wave of staff reductions, further signaling instability. Empulse, billed as a 6‑vs‑6 movement‑focused shooter and described by its creators as a spiritual successor to Titanfall, entered early access in June 2026.
The title promised fast‑paced parkour combat and a high‑skill ceiling, but its launch was followed by multiple rounds of layoffs within a matter of weeks, suggesting that the project was not meeting financial expectations. Co‑founders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian used the announcement to articulate a broader shift in the studio's direction. "After ten years of focusing on live‑service shooters, our focus is changing," they wrote. "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." The founders reflected on the company's origins, noting that they started 1047 Games a decade ago out of a love for video games.
"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," they added. The statement emphasized that the lessons learned over the past ten years will inform whatever the studio creates in the future, even if the new projects diverge from the live‑service shooter formula.
While the announcement did not explicitly address the current staffing situation, it follows a pattern of layoffs that began shortly after Empulse's launch and continued through July 2026. It remains unclear whether the shift away from dedicated servers will trigger additional workforce reductions or if the studio will stabilize its remaining team to pursue new, possibly non‑live‑service projects. In summary, 1047 Games is winding down active development on Empulse and Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, moving both games to peer‑to‑peer hosting on September 3.
The studio is stepping back from the live‑service shooter market after ten years, acknowledging financial realities while expressing a continued passion for game creation. The future direction of 1047 Games is still uncertain, but the founders promise that the experience gained over the past decade will shape whatever comes next, even if it diverges from the expectations of their existing fan base.