Developer/publisher | 1047 Games
Format | PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Origin | US
Release | 2025
Don't be fooled by the hot-pink gloss. The developers of Splitgate's successor may have slapped on some colour and reimagined it as a class-based shooter, with a reveal trailer that foregrounds three pinup heroes, but at heart Splitgate 2 is very much of the old school.
The same was true of its viral-smash predecessor, which not only married Halo with Portal but did so while delivering the neat load-outs, tight maps and fast, meaty gunplay that caused so many of us to imprint on this genre in the first place.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1387349800/1725452903/articles/a8HIKSai61725520949656/7927470857.jpg]
Unlike many of its contemporaries, the first Splitgate was delightfully indifferent to how much time you had to spare it. Yes, your K:D ratio would benefit from a bit of time getting to grips with the intricacies of its portal system, and of course it was easier to slip around the maps as their layouts grew familiar (something tested as new routes and shortcuts were wormholed into existence).
But overall, in line with the arena-based presentations of its shootouts, this was a very sporting vision of warfare, one where you couldn't grind out a better grenade.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1387349800/1725452903/articles/a8HIKSai61725520949656/1812959915.jpg]
In the long term, though, this anti-FOMO design may actually have worked against Splitgate as much as for it. At its August 2021 peak, the game boasted over 67,000 concurrent players. By July 2024, this had plummeted to fewer than 600. As 1047 CEO and creative director Ian Proulx reflects, Splitgate is a "super-fun game," but after playing it for three or four weeks, "you've kind of experienced everything there is to do."
We're starting to understand why 1047 has decided to make a full-blown sequel rather than continuing to build on the existing game via updates. "With the formula we had, you couldn't retroactively turn this into a class-based shooter," Proulx says. "You could change some of the game modes, of course, and add new ones, but we're not going to achieve our goals if we keep iterating on this thing that started off as a school project."
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1387349800/1725452903/articles/a8HIKSai61725520949656/1895554070.jpg]
He acknowledges that the game needs "a big moment to get people back" in anything like the numbers it once enjoyed. "Just making small, iterative changes is not going to get us that big moment." But if it can recapture that moment, 1047 needs to be ready to capitalise on it in a way it simply couldn't before.
Reflective and honest, Proulx points to Splitgate's "band-aid" development, where things were fixed "out of necessity, [with] no time to do it the right way - just hack something together". He keeps returning to Splitgate's humble origins as a school project, designed with his college friend Nicholas Bagamian while the two studied at Stanford.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1387349800/1725452903/articles/a8HIKSai61725520949656/4298711859.jpg]
The final released game was built by just four engineers. "Rockstar engineers", Proulx grins, but "the way we structured our code was very difficult to have lots of people working on it."
Things are now very different for 1047. Its team has grown to 170 people, thanks to the $100m funding the studio received at Splitgate's 2021 peak. (You'd be hard-pressed to find a better microcosm of just how much the videogame landscape has changed in a few scant years than 1047's $1.5bn valuation, from a time when money was freely sloshing around the industry.)
But it's not just a case of money and manpower, Proulx argues. "There were a number of design decisions we made early on due to a lack of resources and just a lack of understanding. We've learned a ton [and realised] we'd really like to take a different approach."
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1387349800/1725452903/articles/a8HIKSai61725520949656/8915594945.jpg]
Now, after the ups and downs of the past few years, Proulx believes 1047 is finally ready to make a "triple-A shooter". And key to that, it seems, is the kind of support its debut didn't receive, at least not for long.
"The numberone lesson [from Splitgate] has been liveops," Proulx says. "A lot of free-to-play shooters have come and gone over the past few years.
There are a lot of fun games out there that are unique, that do a lot of things well - but that's only half the battle, right? You could have the best game of all time, but if you don't have your liveops figured out, it's not going to last."
image [ht...
Format | PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Origin | US
Release | 2025
Don't be fooled by the hot-pink gloss. The developers of Splitgate's successor may have slapped on some colour and reimagined it as a class-based shooter, with a reveal trailer that foregrounds three pinup heroes, but at heart Splitgate 2 is very much of the old school.
The same was true of its viral-smash predecessor, which not only married Halo with Portal but did so while delivering the neat load-outs, tight maps and fast, meaty gunplay that caused so many of us to imprint on this genre in the first place.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1387349800/1725452903/articles/a8HIKSai61725520949656/7927470857.jpg]
Unlike many of its contemporaries, the first Splitgate was delightfully indifferent to how much time you had to spare it. Yes, your K:D ratio would benefit from a bit of time getting to grips with the intricacies of its portal system, and of course it was easier to slip around the maps as their layouts grew familiar (something tested as new routes and shortcuts were wormholed into existence).
But overall, in line with the arena-based presentations of its shootouts, this was a very sporting vision of warfare, one where you couldn't grind out a better grenade.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1387349800/1725452903/articles/a8HIKSai61725520949656/1812959915.jpg]
In the long term, though, this anti-FOMO design may actually have worked against Splitgate as much as for it. At its August 2021 peak, the game boasted over 67,000 concurrent players. By July 2024, this had plummeted to fewer than 600. As 1047 CEO and creative director Ian Proulx reflects, Splitgate is a "super-fun game," but after playing it for three or four weeks, "you've kind of experienced everything there is to do."
We're starting to understand why 1047 has decided to make a full-blown sequel rather than continuing to build on the existing game via updates. "With the formula we had, you couldn't retroactively turn this into a class-based shooter," Proulx says. "You could change some of the game modes, of course, and add new ones, but we're not going to achieve our goals if we keep iterating on this thing that started off as a school project."
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1387349800/1725452903/articles/a8HIKSai61725520949656/1895554070.jpg]
He acknowledges that the game needs "a big moment to get people back" in anything like the numbers it once enjoyed. "Just making small, iterative changes is not going to get us that big moment." But if it can recapture that moment, 1047 needs to be ready to capitalise on it in a way it simply couldn't before.
Reflective and honest, Proulx points to Splitgate's "band-aid" development, where things were fixed "out of necessity, [with] no time to do it the right way - just hack something together". He keeps returning to Splitgate's humble origins as a school project, designed with his college friend Nicholas Bagamian while the two studied at Stanford.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1387349800/1725452903/articles/a8HIKSai61725520949656/4298711859.jpg]
The final released game was built by just four engineers. "Rockstar engineers", Proulx grins, but "the way we structured our code was very difficult to have lots of people working on it."
Things are now very different for 1047. Its team has grown to 170 people, thanks to the $100m funding the studio received at Splitgate's 2021 peak. (You'd be hard-pressed to find a better microcosm of just how much the videogame landscape has changed in a few scant years than 1047's $1.5bn valuation, from a time when money was freely sloshing around the industry.)
But it's not just a case of money and manpower, Proulx argues. "There were a number of design decisions we made early on due to a lack of resources and just a lack of understanding. We've learned a ton [and realised] we'd really like to take a different approach."
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1387349800/1725452903/articles/a8HIKSai61725520949656/8915594945.jpg]
Now, after the ups and downs of the past few years, Proulx believes 1047 is finally ready to make a "triple-A shooter". And key to that, it seems, is the kind of support its debut didn't receive, at least not for long.
"The numberone lesson [from Splitgate] has been liveops," Proulx says. "A lot of free-to-play shooters have come and gone over the past few years.
There are a lot of fun games out there that are unique, that do a lot of things well - but that's only half the battle, right? You could have the best game of all time, but if you don't have your liveops figured out, it's not going to last."
image [ht...
You're reading a preview of
Edge Uk (Digital) - 1 Issue, November 2024