Splitgate developer 1047 Games has conducted another round of layoffs, only weeks after its latest title, Empulse, arrived on Steam Early Access. Word of the cuts surfaced through affected employees posting on LinkedIn, rather than any official announcement from the studio. The exact number of people impacted remains unclear, and 1047 Games has yet to issue a public statement, though it has been contacted for comment on the scope of the reductions.
The human toll was visible in those LinkedIn posts. One of the laid-off workers, a former principal technical sound designer, noted it was his second layoff in under two years, a grim illustration of how volatile the current industry is. Another, an associate producer, reflected on what he called an "incredible four years" with the company.
A Launch That Failed to Catch Fire
Empulse released into Early Access on June 24, priced at $19.99 with a launch discount, and pitched as a spiritual successor to Titanfall 2, built around wall-running, grappling hooks, and pilotable mechs across 6v6 combat. Notably, it launched with no store, no battle pass, and no paid cosmetics, with all unlocks earned through play, a deliberate response to past criticism. Reviews were mostly positive, but the audience simply didn't materialise at scale. Player counts peaked at just under 2,900 concurrents on Steam and have slipped day over day since. It's the kind of soft launch that struggles to justify a large team, and previews had cautiously predicted as much, with even hands-on impressions suggesting a "roaring success" was unlikely given the goodwill the studio had burned.
That other title, Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, a rebrand of the troubled Splitgate 2, is faring even worse, sitting at an average daily concurrent count of only around 250 players.
A Pattern of Boom and Bust
This is far from 1047's first difficult stretch, and the timing rhymes uncomfortably with its recent history. The studio made significant cuts a year ago following the full release of Splitgate 2, framing that round as an effort to redirect resources "to build the best game for our players." That sequel launched in June 2025 to heavy criticism, saw its concurrent count Collapse by more than 90% within weeks, and was pulled back into beta before being relaunched as Arena Reloaded in December. Across 2025, 1047 endured two rounds of layoffs, including 45 job cuts, shut down the original Splitgate's servers to save costs, and weathered public scrutiny over CEO Ian Proulx's controversial Summer Game Fest appearance, all while the co-founders reportedly forwent their own salaries.
The recurring pattern is hard to ignore. 1047 keeps staffing up around a launch and then cutting down when the game fails to find a lasting audience, cycling through the same difficult months again and again. The studio is plainly overdue for a win, and Empulse still has a long Early Access runway ahead of it to try and find one. But another round of layoffs weeks after release is a bleak signal, both for a team that has now weathered repeated instability and for a game that needed a stronger start than it got.
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