Even though Splitgate launched into early access back in 2019, it wasn’t until a year or so later that the multiplayer shooter enjoyed the sudden explosion in popularity that it did, with its unique Halo meets Portal gameplay catching on amongst the masses like wildfire.
The shooter has enjoyed its fair share of success since then, and naturally, developer 1047 has been looking to kick things up a notch in more ways than one. In fact, the developer has just announced that it’s taking quite a big step towards that end.
1047 Games has announced that it’s ending future development of Splitgate. Rather than focusing on pumping out a number of iterative upgrades for the game, the developer has decided to begin working on a full-fledged sequel that will bring “revolutionary, not evolutionary, changes”. The sequel is set to be developed using Unreal Engine 5, and it’ll be free-to-play.
“Splitgate achieved a level of success that we could not have anticipated and that few indie games are fortunate to reach,” the developer explained. “That initial success brought an opportunity to turn what started as a college dorm dream project into a AAA game that could stand toe-to-toe with shooters from the biggest publishers in the industry. But this also meant that as we’ve brought on top-tier talent from across the industry, we’ve spent a lot of our time trying to rework old content and systems that were originally built by a handful of people.
“We are, in a way, bailing water while also trying to keep everyone who bought a ticket to board our ship happy, while also trying to turn our boat into a rocket ship.
“After careful consideration and much deliberation the 1047 Games team has determined that in order to build the game fans deserve – and to build it in a way that isn’t trying to retrofit and live operate an existing product – we are ending feature development of Splitgate.
“We’re turning our attention away from iterative, smaller updates and going all-in to focus on a new game in the Splitgate universe which will present revolutionary, not evolutionary, changes to our game. It will be a shooter, it will have portals, and it will be built in Unreal Engine 5. Oh, and it will be free.
“We understand many of you will be disappointed and have a lot of questions. We want to be clear that Splitgate will remain online as will your items and progression. In fact, we will roll out a new Battle Pass on September 15 – and it will be free to everyone as a thank you for playing Splitgate.”
1047 Games also clarifies that Splitgate will continue to receive backend support as well as smaller patches and fixes in the future. “But the bulk of our focus will be on an entirely new shooter that we can’t wait to share with you,” the developer says.
