Splitgate Devs Jump on Stop Killing Games Bandwagon
- Splitgate 1 servers close Aug. 29, but peer-to-peer play and all content stay available.
- Splitgate 2 was shut down in July after poor response; devs plan to relaunch.
- Some players see support for Stop Killing Games, others call it damage control.
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1047 Games Made a Splash With Splitgate
On its release in May 2019, it married FPS multiplayer action with game-changing portals and drew players in. However, after 1047 Games shuttered the sequel in July this year, players were concerned about the future of the original game. Now, the studio has announced it’s shutting down Splitgate 1 servers on Aug. 29 – but it will live on.
In an announcement across its various social media platforms, 1047 Games said that, as part of its efforts to rebuild Splitgate 2, it would need to rearrange resources and downsize accordingly. As such, it would be sunsetting the servers for Splitgate 1, but still allow players to host their own games.
“A player will host a match and act as the server,” 1047 Games posted in its official Discord server. “Other players can view the game in the server browser and join from there. If the host has saved Custom Maps, then those maps will be playable for the lobby.”
“You’ve invested time, energy, and passion into the original Splitgate, which deserves to be preserved,” 1047 Games added. “Our community is everything to us. While we can’t keep the full online infrastructure running indefinitely, we can make sure the game itself lives on for anyone who wants to keep playing. We have seen a lot of conversations about the Stop Killing Games movement, and empathize with players who lose access to their favorite titles. We absolutely do not want our community to lose access to theirs.”
Stop Killing Splitgate
After 1047 Games co-founder Ian Proulx made a controversial appearance at Summer Games Fest in June 2025, the sequel title, Splitgate 2, saw a fall from grace as player numbers rapidly dwindled to around 1,000 concurrent players at any given time. This was a marked downgrade from its initial 25,785 player count.
Splitgate 2 was shuttered on July 22, just two months after its launch. Proulx posted the news on social media. “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.”
He also highlighted that the studio had made “boneheaded mistakes” and would give players “the polished, portal-filled mayhem” they fell in love with. Many saw this apparent “strategic relaunch” as a bumbled way for 1047 Games to save face after it promised a Call of Duty killer, but then fell prey to the same behavior as that title, including aggressive and unbalanced monetization.
Gamers are also unconvinced that 1047 Games truly cares about Stop Killing Games, which seeks to stop publishers and studios ending support for games, and instead is just using the name to try and gin up more support from the gaming public.
“If Splitgate 2 wasn’t a massive failure, SG1 wouldn’t be ‘saved’. Crediting this to SKG is straight up clickbait,” said Reddit user Resident-Forever1340.
This sentiment was countered by a few other users, including MrTriangular. “Maybe, but if it saves a game so people can play it without dev support, then good.”
More Bang For Your Buck
To its credit, 1047 Games is doing a good job of giving gamers what they want. It may end up being too little too late (its current player count averages just over 100), but at least for now fans of Splitgate 1 can still download and play it, for free. Plus, the devs have removed and added a bunch of content and features so as to streamline the process, as well as reward those still playing.
“Starting August 29, the original Splitgate will be moving to peer-to-peer as we focus our resources on rebuilding Splitgate 2,” 1047 Games posted on Discord. “In addition to these changes, we have also added content to the game that was previously unreleased, stockpiled, or Work In Progress (WIP).”
“Everyone gets access to all cosmetics (for this reason, the Battle Pass, Rewards Center, Store, and Drops have been sunset). We have also made sure that community-favorite features remain playable, including Races and Map Creator!”
1047 Games has also clarified a few points about the impending shutdown/switchover, including that anything previously bought in-game (such as cosmetics) will still be available; the only difference is now everything will be unlocked for everybody. Matches will still work cross-platform, too, although anti-cheat measures will not be in effect.
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