The game officially launched on June 6, 2025, which was also the day co-founder Ian Proulx went on stage at Summer Game Fest wearing a “Make FPS Great Again” hat to announce a battle royale. The on-stage comments weren’t taken well by the community, along with a slew of microtransactions, prompting an apology from Proulx. However, the damage was done, as Splitgate 2’s player base quickly dropped. Now, less than two months after its official launch, Splitgate 2 is going back to beta.
In an announcement on the game’s Steam page, 1047 Games admitted the game had launched too early and that the team had bitten off more than it could chew. “We rushed certain features, made some bonehaded mistakes, and most importantly — we didn’t give you the polished, portal-filled mayhem you fell in love with,” the message reads. As a result, the game is essentially being unreleased, and the team is rebuilding major parts. That includes reworking progression from the ground up, adding more portals to the maps, simplifying monetization, and refocusing on classic game modes the community has been asking for.
Not surprisingly, the post also confirms the studio is having some layoffs with a reduction of certain roles to shift resources onto the rework. The developer is also making the decision to shut down original Splitgate servers in a month, saying that it’s part of an effort to retain as many team members as possible. They are looking into the possibility of supporting offline or peer-to-peer matches.
Splitgate 2 will remain playable as a free-to-play title and Chapter 3 will go live, along with fixes and other high-priority changes. Don’t expect to see any significant changes, however, until next year at the earliest. Whether or not it’ll be enough to revive the game remains to be seen, but it sure feels like the community is already moving on.
