Two months after its open beta debut in June, the multiplayer shooter Splitgate 2 has declared an 'unlaunching'. In plain English, this is essentially a halt in development. The developer, 1047 Games, plans to pivot towards a complete overhaul, setting their sights on a relaunch in early 2026. Alongside this strategic retreat, the studio is cutting staff to trim costs and will be shutting down the servers for the original Splitgate next month.

Ian Proulx, CEO of 1047 Games, recently admitted to the service's failure in an interview with overseas media, stating, "We missed the mark." It is worth noting that Ian Proulx previously stirred up controversy at the Summer Game Fest in June, where he appeared wearing a 'Make FPS Great Again' hat, a parody of Donald Trump's 'MAGA' slogan.

Following its open beta release, Splitgate 2 was immediately met with criticism regarding persistent bugs, a lack of ranked modes, and overpriced cosmetic items. While Splitgate 2 managed a peak of 25,000 concurrent players at its June launch, the daily peak has since plummeted to around 1,700. The developer acknowledged in an official statement, "We agree that we launched too early. Splitgate 2 had ambitious goals, and in our excitement to share them, we attempted too much. We are heading back into the beta state."

Moving forward, 1047 Games plans to return to the grassroots development style that defined the original Splitgate, working much more closely with the community at the forefront of the process. The rework is expected to include the addition of ranked leaderboards, mode-specific playlists, expanded portal surfaces, and a reduction in round-based game modes.

To be clear, this 'unlaunching' does not signify a total death knell for Splitgate 2. Season 3 updates, bug fixes, and quality-of-life improvements will continue. However, roughly 95% of the studio's workforce is now dedicated entirely to the massive rework for the early 2026 relaunch. As part of the cost-cutting measures, the original Splitgate servers will go dark this August. The developer added that they are exploring options to support offline or peer-to-peer (P2P) matches.