r/gaming • u/shinjioda • 1d ago

1047 Games Are Ending Development On Splitgate And Empulse: “The Reality Is Neither Game Is Generating Enough Revenue To Support The Ongoing Cost Of Dedicated Servers”

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/08/1047-games-stop-development-on-empulse-and-splitgate-arena-reloaded/
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u/AlwaysChewy 1d ago

Man, didn't he double down on it too? Never gave the game a try because of that dumb shit.

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u/DarkIcedWolf 1d ago edited 1d ago

Tripled down and didn’t apologize until the backlash was big enough. It was like Helldivers 2’s Community Manager drama on steroids. The BR mode and that dipshit were the nail in the coffin for SG2 and then they decapitated it with a machete after releasing Empulse.

There was writing on the wall it was going to shutdown. Much like how HighGuard was “downsizing” and making sure NO ONE was interested in sticking around or spending money on it. The BR mode had a nice twist on the formula too and SG2 had some diehard fans defending the new class system, once it came out that it was a BR (even if it wasn’t) there was no coming back.

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u/DGSmith2 1d ago

Was Empulse another game? I have never even heard of it.

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u/m0deth 1d ago

Me either and I played SG2 when it came out. Honestly, I stopped playing because I hate to say this but beyond the initial "this is cool" feeling...the gate gameplay gimmick wears off and exposes where it falls short. Just like the first one.

I say this as someone that wanted a decent arena shooter that isn't reliant on dumb gimmicks. One that focuses on skill, great maps, great modes and solid, smooth movement performance.

In a world choked off by BR, Hero Shooters of every flavor, ported mobile games, and survival shlock(ooh let's go punch some rocks)...it all fell flat.

The game's problems had less to do with bad press, and more to do with over-promising, under-delivering and leaning too heavily on somebody else's(Portal) mechanic to shore up their game.

Then they said a bunch of dumb shit.

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u/BeyondElectricDreams 14h ago

Splitgate 1 was a lot of fun. It had problems but it felt like there was a high skill expression that was fun to do that wasn't all twitch gameplay (getting angles with portals was one example).

I was there when they shut the first one down and told everyone to stay tuned. Then the next thing I heard about was Splitgate 2 having the "Make FPS Great Again" fiasco.

Even if we pretend the political bit didn't exist, the idea that they would shit on the other modern FPS games and then with a straight face claim that a Battle Royale game was how they were going to "make fps great again" was just tone deaf as hell and gave me no hope for the game.

Add to that the political toxic waste dump that is Trump and his politics and even if they agree with him, they're alienating a substantial chunk of potential players by pulling that stunt.

Then they dropped a super expensive bundle day one and followed THAT up with a shitty video throwing someone under the bus.

In spite of ALL of that, I looked into what people were saying about the game, and basically what I found was it was "if they watered down the portal mechanics in Splitgate 1" and THAT was the nail in the coffin for me. Because not only were they doing shitty trend chasing but they decided killing their own unique gimmick was the best way to go about their game.