Splitgate support to wind down as 1047 Games begins work on its next shooter

digitaltrends.com:

Three years after its initial release date, Splitgate is finally releasing its 1.0 build on September 15. Though in a surprising turn, the launch will mark the end of the game’s consistent support cycle as 1047 Games moves on to its next project.

Splitgate launched in 2019 to a tepid reaction before successfully relaunching in 2021. The game was originally supposed to get its 1.0 release last summer, but 1047 Games delayed the launch. Since then, the developer has consistently added new modes to the game as well as updated its art style from the inside out, one map at a time.

With how committed 1047 seemed to supporting the shooter, today’s news might come as a shock to fans. Splitgate will introduce a free “infinite” battle pass that goes live alongside the 1.0 launch, which will feature 100 new cosmetic items and then pay out random item drops after that. Weekly featured playlists will continue and 1047 Games also plans to do standard bug fixing on the game, but that’ll be the bulk of the work done on Splitgate after 1.0 goes live.

The developer says that it’s handling Spligate’s 1.0 launch this way to allow the team to move on to its next project, which will be a game set in the same universe that’s being built in Unreal Engine 5. In an exclusive interview with Digital Trends discussing the move, 1047 Games founder Ian Proulx notes that the project will still be a shooter with portals, but he emphasizes that it won’t be “Halo meets Portal” — a common moniker fans applied to Splitgate that the developer is hoping to move away from.

“Specifically, we are trying not to be ‘Halo meets Portal,’” Proulx tells Digital Trends “That’s another reason we want to move away from this. We want to come up with a new art style.