In the video, Proulx said that “a small section of the team” has been split off to work on the new project, which has been described as a “movement shooter”. Among the list of inspirations behind this new titles are Titanfall and Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, which would indicate that 1047 Games’ next title will have quite a bit of emphasis on parkour-styled movement paired with fast-paced shooter action.

“Obviously, Splitgate is the focus, but there is one more thing I want to add,” Proulx explained. “This is actually unrelated to Splitgate, and more just 1047 news. We have always had the dream to be a multi-game studio. Obviously, I love Splitgate, it’s genuinely my favourite game of all time, and we’re not shy about where we took inspiration there, with Halo and Portal being two of my all-time favourites.”

“But there’s other games and other dream games that we love. So, I’m not here to talk too much about that today, but I just want to give the community a heads up. We’ve had a small section of the team start working on a new game in addition to Splitgate. I’m not here to share too much about that, but what I will say is that it is a movement shooter, and if you’re a fan of games like Titanfall, or [Call of Duty] Black Ops 3, we would love to hear from you. We’re going to take sign-ups below so that we can start playtesting soon.”

1047 Games has seen quite a bit of trouble since it released the original Splitgate back in 2019 as an Early Access title. The initial success at the time led the studio to eventually announce in 2021 that the title would remain in beta indefinitely, and work would then begin on a sequel. Splitgate 2 would come out in 2025, and saw a generally mixed reception.

This would eventually lead to Proulx announcing that the studio was taking Splitgate 2 “back to beta” and introducing major overhauls to the title. He admitted at the time that the shooter was “not a finished product yet”.

The title would return in the form of Splitgate: Arena Reloaded back in December, bringing with it a returning Classic Arena mode, along with new weapons and maps. However, the title never quite reached the same number of players that Splitgate 2 saw at its peak. The studio would offer a statement in response to this, noting that “Steam Charts don’t measure fun.”

Splitgate: Arena Reloaded is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

In response to this, the studio has posted a statement on social media, noting that “Steam Charts don’t measure fun.” 1047 Games went on to talk about how hard it has been working on rebuilding Splitgate “from the ground up” over the last six months, and how community feedback is helping with the development of upcoming content like Arena Royale.

“[Steam Charts] show one number, on one platform, at one given moment,” wrote the studio. “They don’t show the full picture or what it feels like to actually play, and they definitely don’t capture the community that’s actively helping shape what Arena Reloaded is becoming (including upcoming content like Arena Royale).”

“Over the past six months, we rebuilt Splitgate from the ground up because we believe in the game, our team, and our community. The 1047 team remains committed to delivering the best version of Splitgate possible.”

The studio went on to thank its community for its feedback and active participation in Splitgate: Arena Reloaded. Along with this, it also welcomed those who haven’t yet tried the multiplayer shooter.

“To our amazing community: thank you. Your feedback and passion have helped make Arena Reloaded better every day,” wrote the studio. “And to everyone who hasn’t played yet: Arena Reloaded is free, the gameplay’s the best it’s ever been, and we’d love for you to jump in and form your own opinion. A lot of passionate people worked very hard on it.”

Splitgate: Arena Reloaded launched just last month, and as we recorded in our coverage, it had managed to get less than 10 percent of the peak concurrent player count Splitgate 2 got. The relaunch came in light of Splitgate 2 seeing poor reception, which led 1047 Games to announce that it would be completely reworked, and would spend the rest of the year going “back to beta”.

Acknowledging the feedback 1047 Games had gotten from Splitgate 2 players, studio CEO Ian Proulx spoke about how it was a less-than-ideal launch, and how the game still felt like a beta.

“This doesn’t feel like a launched game as much as we want to pretend it was, and obviously we said it was,” he said. “It feels like a beta. There’s bugs still. There’s features that are missing that — obviously not every game has to have every feature — but there’s certain things that should be in a finished product. There’s too many bugs, and we’re hitting the reset button.”

The studio’s plans to rework Splitgate 2 involved going back to the “classic arena game mode experience” that made the original Splitgate a hit. Along with this, the studio was also revisiting “basic features” as described by the community, including leaderboards, improved progression, and more surfaces where portals could be opened.

Splitgate: Arena Reloaded is available for free on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

On Steam, the response has been a notable improvement over Splitgate 2’s recent months, peaking at 2,297 concurrent players on release. Sadly, it’s a ways off from the former’s launch, which hit 25,785 players. While the overall rating remains “Mixed,” at least the recent reviews are “Mostly Positive” with 76 percent of 540 users recommending it.

Of course, Splitgate: Arena Reloaded is also available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PS4, so perhaps the console numbers will help make up the disparity.

Other notable features in the relaunch include the return of pickups (such as Legendary Weapons and power-ups), Classic Arena with each player having the same starting loadout, an overhauled progression system, five new maps and much more. There’s also a new Power Weapon – the Railgun – and three new Light Machine Guns – the Velocity, Barrage and Strata. Head here for more details.

The biggest hook is that there are no longer factions or abilities. Players can customize their loadouts without restrictions or opt for the same playing field. Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Gun Game and Shotty Snipers will be included alongside six revamped arenas and five new additions.

There are also three new primary weapons, one new Power weapon, an overhauled Ranked system, and revamped progression that promises rewards “with every match.” This is on top of the dozens of other new features fans can look forward to.

Design director Josh Watson said in a press release that, “Splitgate has always been a love letter to the arena shooters we grew up playing. We’ve been hard at work rebuilding the game from the ground up, taking the best of Splitgate 1 and Splitgate 2, removing what didn’t work, and refining what did.” Studio CEO Ian Proulx also credited the community for this approach as they “led us back to the arena.”

Whether it will rekindle interest in the series remains to be seen, but it is fascinating to see a developer remove long-in-development features like battle royale and whatnot in a bid to return to basics. To learn more about Reloaded’s development, a “mini-documentary” will be released on December 9th, so stay tuned for details on that.