Splitgate 2 goes back to Beta, 1047 Games Cutting Staff

It’s no secret that Splitgate 2 had a very rough start following its launch back in June, so it may come as no surprise that the developer has announced that this portal-based multiplayer shooter is going back to beta while the team paused the planned roadmap to focus on “rebuilding major parts of the game to capture the spirit of what made Splitgate special.“

In a post from the official Splitgate account on X, the team shared a lengthy update, saying:

“To the Splitgate community, We believe in Splitgate 2. This game means everything to us – it’s been our life for almost 10 years, starting in our dorm room, and we’re more committed than ever to delivering the incredible experience you deserve.

We’ve heard your feedback, and we agree with you: we launched too early. We had ambitious goals with Splitgate 2, and in our excitement to share it with you, we bit off more than we could chew. We rushed certain features, made some boneheaded mistakes, and most importantly – we didn’t give you the polished, portal-filled mayhem you fell in love with.

So we’re going back to beta. We’ll be heads down until early next year, rebuilding major parts of the game to capture the spirit of what made Splitgate special. That means reworking progression from the ground up, adding more portals to our maps, simplifying monetization, refocusing on classic game modes you’ve been asking for, and more, which we’ll share soon.

Now more than ever, we need your help. We’re returning not just to our roots in what we build, but in how we build it – with you. That means more playtests, more surveys, more listening, and truly being community first. Our goal is to combine the DNA of the first game with the best improvements from the second.

Rebuilding the core experience isn’t a quick fix; it’s a long-term commitment. To give ourselves the time to build the Splitgate you deserve, we’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to reduce certain roles and shift our resources to focus on this rework. This is heartbreaking. These are our teammates and our friends, and they helped build what we have today. They’re receiving severance and job placement support, and we’re committed to doing everything we can to help them through this transition. We hope to bring them back when we can.

In an effort to retain as many team members as possible, we’re also going to be shutting down OG Splitgate servers in a month. While we’d love to keep servers online indefinitely, it’s cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past couple of years, and we have to prioritize our team. Like us, we know this game means a lot to so many of you, so we are exploring the possibility of supporting offline or peer-to-peer matches. And when we return, we plan to have a dedicated experience in Splitgate 2 that delivers on the promise of the original.

In the meantime, Splitgate 2 will remain playable, and we’ll still be shipping Chapter 3, as well as fixes and high-priority changes. We hope you will continue to play and support the game. As always, please keep the feedback coming. We’ve faced a lot of dark days and have made many mistakes, but we’ve learned a lot and are as determined as ever to make Splitgate as great as possible. Splitgate has been our life for 10 years, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. We’ve got work to do, but we aren’t giving up. We love this game, and we love this community too much to ever quit. So we won’t.

See you in the arena, Ian and Nicholas

Ian Proulx, CEO & Co-Founder of 1047 Games had big plans for Splitgate 2 when I interviewed him last year, and was remarkably confident. It’s a shame that it’s not gone quite according to plan. My heart goes out to every developer affected by the cuts.

We reviewed Splitgate 2 shortly after launch, saying “Splitgate 2 is solid mechanically but underwhelming in nearly every other area. For a sequel, a game that the studio had to stop all production of the first game to focus on, it doesn’t seem to do much more to improve on the original. The inclusions over the first game, like the Battle Royale, feel tacked on and don’t add anything new to the genre. Maps, modes, weapons, abilities, and perks all feel uninspired and wholly unoriginal, and I somehow think they made portals less effective in the sequel than in the first game.

While there are worse shooters on the market than Splitgate 2, there are a ton of better ways to spend your time as well. The game is free, so it’s worth a download if you’re curious, but I’m not sure you’ll end up wanting to spend a ton of time on the game as it currently sits.“

Do you think Splitgate 2 can make a triumphant come back? Let us know in the XboxEra Forums or via our Community Discord Server.