1047 Games is facing new layoff reports less than a month after Empulse entered Early Access, raising fresh questions about the Splitgate developer's shooter roadmap.
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New layoff claims arrive weeks after Empulse
1047 Games, the studio behind Splitgate and the newly launched Empulse, is reportedly facing another round of layoffs less than a month after Empulse entered Early Access. Game Developer reported on July 21 that multiple 1047 Games employees had posted farewell messages on LinkedIn and said they were looking for work. Rock Paper Shotgun also covered the LinkedIn posts, describing this as the studio’s third round of layoffs in roughly a year.
The strongest confirmed detail here is the employee-side evidence. According to Game Developer and Rock Paper Shotgun, an associate art director wrote on LinkedIn that “as of the end of this week” it would be their last day at 1047 Games “due to the third wave of studio layoffs.” A QA director also described “a bunch of us” leaving the company at a “post-Empulse station,” while Rock Paper Shotgun reported that the studio’s community specialist had also shared word of being laid off.
1047 Games has not publicly announced the scope of the cuts in the source material provided. Game Developer said it contacted the studio for more information, and Insider Gaming likewise reported that it had reached out for comment. Until 1047 responds publicly, the number of affected employees, the departments hit, and the studio’s reasoning remain unconfirmed.
The timing puts Empulse under immediate scrutiny
The layoff reports land in a difficult window for 1047 Games because Empulse launched into Early Access on June 24, according to Insider Gaming and Game World Observer. The game is a movement-focused shooter with wall-running and mechs, and multiple outlets have framed it as Titanfall-inspired. Rock Paper Shotgun described it as a wall-running FPS with mechs and said its own coverage found some fun in the pitch, while Insider Gaming said the Steam reception was mostly positive after launch.
Positive user sentiment does not automatically solve the harder problem for a live shooter: population. Insider Gaming reported that Empulse peaked at just under 2,900 concurrent players on Steam and then declined day by day. Game World Observer, citing SteamDB, put the Steam peak at 2,860 concurrent players and said the game held a “mostly positive” 73 percent Steam review rating at the time of its report.
Those numbers do not prove why the layoffs happened. They do, however, explain why the timing is uncomfortable. A movement shooter needs matchmaking liquidity, map familiarity, and enough bodies in the queue for its skill expression to breathe. If a new FPS comes out of the gate with modest Steam concurrency, even decent reviews can leave the studio facing a tougher retention fight than the trailers suggested.
This follows a rough year for 1047 Games
The latest 1047 Games layoffs reports do not stand alone. Game Developer wrote that almost a year earlier, 1047 laid off staff and shut down the original Splitgate as part of an effort to revamp its sequel after launching the game “too early,” according to CEO Ian Proulx. In a statement at the time, Proulx and CTO Nicholas Bagamian said the studio had ambitious goals for Splitgate 2, but “bit off more than we could chew.”
Rock Paper Shotgun’s account places the new reports as the third round of layoffs in about a year. It says the first round affected an unspecified number of staff, while the second saw 45 workers lose their jobs. Game Developer also described a June 2025 cut involving a “small group” of employees, followed by a larger restructure tied to the Splitgate 2 reset.
That sequence matters because 1047 has been trying to manage multiple pressure points at once: the legacy of the original Splitgate, the reset of Splitgate 2, the rebrand into Splitgate: Arena Reloaded reported by Insider Gaming, and the launch of Empulse as a separate new shooter. For a studio built around competitive FPS identity, that is a lot of aim to hold steady at the same time.
Splitgate’s early success set a high bar
The hard contrast is that Splitgate once looked like one of the cleanest breakout stories in multiplayer shooters. Game Developer reported that the first Splitgate surpassed 13 million downloads while still in open beta. In 2021, the studio secured more than $100 million in funding through an investment that valued 1047 Games at $1.5 billion, according to Game Developer.
Proulx’s own stated ambition was long-term scale. Speaking to Game Developer in 2024, he said he wanted Splitgate 2 to be a game people would still be playing 10 years later. He also said Splitgate had reached 200,000 concurrent players at its peak, and that success for the sequel would mean exceeding that number years down the line.
That historical bar makes the current 1047 Games news sharper. Empulse’s reported Steam peak near 2,900 concurrents is not directly comparable to Splitgate’s cross-platform high point, and Steam data does not capture every platform if the game is also available elsewhere. Still, for PC players watching queue health, content cadence, and communication, the gap between past ambition and current reported traction is impossible to ignore.
What Splitgate players can and cannot infer
For Splitgate players, the immediate question is whether these reported cuts affect support for Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, Splitgate 2’s future, or Empulse’s Early Access roadmap. The honest answer is that the provided sources do not confirm any cancellations, roadmap changes, platform removals, or server shutdowns tied to the latest layoffs.
Insider Gaming reported that Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, described as a rebrand of Splitgate 2, was struggling on Steam with an average daily concurrent count of roughly 250 players. That is a useful signal for matchmaking health on Steam, but it does not by itself show total active population across all platforms, revenue, internal priorities, or whether 1047 plans to shift resources again.
The practical read is narrower: live FPS players should watch communication closely. If you are invested in Splitgate or Empulse, the next concrete tells will be patch frequency, playlist support, balance updates, anti-cheat responses, queue times, and whether 1047 publishes a revised plan. Layoffs can slow production, especially when QA, community, art, production, or technical audio roles are affected, but the sources do not establish which projects or features are changing as a result.
Empulse now has to prove retention, not premise
Empulse’s pitch is easy to understand for shooter players: high-mobility FPS pacing, wall-running, and mechs, with an obvious appeal to players who miss the speed and verticality of Titanfall-style combat. That kind of game lives or dies on feel. If traversal is sharp, weapons read clearly, spawns hold up, and servers keep fights responsive, a smaller shooter can still build a dedicated audience over time.
The risk is that Early Access shooters need constant visible momentum. A slow matchmaking pool can distort balance impressions, push new players into uneven lobbies, and make every missing feature feel larger. That pressure increases when the studio is already associated with prior layoffs and a sequel reset.
None of the available reporting confirms that Empulse caused the layoffs. Rock Paper Shotgun explicitly noted that it is unclear why the cuts happened, and that while Empulse seemed to be received well, the question is whether enough people are playing. That is the fairest frame right now: the Empulse layoffs reports are a staffing story with a launch-timing problem, not a confirmed verdict on the game.
The next statement from 1047 matters
The unresolved piece is 1047 Games’ own explanation. At the time reflected in the provided reporting, the studio had not publicly detailed the latest cuts, had not confirmed the number of employees affected, and had not laid out how the changes affect Empulse, Splitgate: Arena Reloaded, or longer-term Splitgate plans.
That silence leaves players with partial information from LinkedIn posts and outlet reporting. Game Developer, Rock Paper Shotgun, Insider Gaming, and Game World Observer all point in the same direction on the existence of new layoff reports, but the scope remains open. Until 1047 comments, claims about project cancellations, specific roadmap cuts, or the studio’s finances would be overreach.
For now, the confirmed picture is grim enough without exaggeration: former staffers say they have been laid off, outlets report this is another round after prior 2025 cuts, and it comes shortly after Empulse launched into Early Access with positive Steam sentiment but modest reported concurrency. For a Splitgate developer trying to keep pace in the most unforgiving corner of multiplayer shooters, the next few updates need to do more than patch guns and maps. They need to restore confidence that the fight is still staffed.