Independent Developer 1047 Games Reportedly Executes Third Wave of Layoffs Following Launch of ‘Empulse’

The independent video game industry is facing continued economic volatility as 1047 Games, the developer best known for the portal-based arena shooter Splitgate, has reportedly instituted another round of staff reductions. The layoffs, which have not been formally announced by the studio’s leadership, came to light through public disclosures made by affected employees on professional networking platforms.

This development occurs less than a month after the launch of Empulse, the studio’s fast-paced, mech-infused multiplayer shooter. The staff reductions represent the third major wave of layoffs at the studio within a relatively short period, highlighting the persistent challenges mid-sized developers face when launching and sustaining multiplayer titles in a highly saturated PC and console gaming market.

Main Facts: The Quiet Staff Reductions at 1047 Games

The latest round of layoffs at 1047 Games was first observed through a series of updates on LinkedIn, where departing staff members shared news of their sudden termination. Because 1047 Games has not released an official public statement or press release regarding the cuts, the exact scale of the downscaling remains unconfirmed. However, the testimonials of departing staff paint a picture of a broad reduction affecting multiple departments, including Quality Assurance (QA), User Interface (UI) engineering, and concept art.

Igor Krinitskiy, who served as the studio’s QA Director, was among the first to signal the departures. In a public post, Krinitskiy characterized his departure as part of a planned transition following the release of the studio’s latest game. "A bunch of us, ‘the crew’ aboard the 1047 train, are getting off on this post-Empulse station," Krinitskiy wrote. "It has been an interesting ride, bumpy at times, narrowly avoiding derailment and with everyone working hard to keep that 1047 train going."

Subsequent posts from other staff members confirmed that the departures were not voluntary exits but rather part of a broader corporate restructuring. UI Engineer Iannis Stefan Palaczkos shared that he was swept up in the cuts, writing, "The studio has been sadly hit by another wave of layoffs, and I got caught in that wave."

Concept artist Jonathan Kuo echoed these sentiments, explicitly labeling the event as part of a recurring pattern of downsizing within the company. "As of the end of this week, it will be my last day at 1047 Games due to the third wave of studio layoffs," Kuo stated.

The phrase "third wave" underscores a turbulent period of internal restructuring for the studio, which has repeatedly adjusted its headcount over the past year as its software pipeline underwent dramatic, rapid pivots.

Chronology: From Indie Darling to Restructuring

To understand the current financial and operational position of 1047 Games, it is necessary to examine the studio’s rapid ascent and subsequent struggle to replicate its early success.

[2019] Splitgate: Arena Warfare Launches (Modest success, solid foundation)
  │
[2021] Viral Explosion & $100M Funding Round (Ambitions to scale to "the next Riot Games")
  │
[2022-2024] Pivot to Splitgate 2 (Transition to Unreal Engine 5, escalating dev costs)
  │
[Mid-2024] Splitgate 2 Beta Stumbles -> First Major Layoffs & Rollback to Beta
  │
[Late 2024] Splitgate 2 Relaunched as "Splitgate: Arena Reloaded" (Low player retention)
  │
[Early 2025] "Empulse" Released (Premium $20 Titanfall-like shooter)
  │
[Present] Third Wave of Layoffs Hits 1047 Games

The Splitgate Phenomenon (2019–2021)

Founded in 2017 by Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian while they were students at Stanford University, 1047 Games set out to merge the arena shooter mechanics of Halo with the spatial manipulation of Valve’s Portal. The resulting title, Splitgate: Arena Warfare, launched in 2019 to modest appreciation.

However, it was the game’s console beta launch in the summer of 2021 that triggered a massive viral explosion. The game’s servers were overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of concurrent players, forcing the developers to implement queue systems and rapidly scale their backend infrastructure.

This sudden success caught the attention of venture capitalists. In September 2021, 1047 Games secured a massive $100 million funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, valuing the studio at $1.5 billion. Armed with this capital, studio leadership expressed immense ambitions, publicly stating their goal to scale the company and transform 1047 Games into "the next Riot Games."

The Sequel Stumble and First Layoffs (2022–2024)

Instead of continuing to patch the original Splitgate, which was built on an older iteration of Unreal Engine 4 and suffered from technical debt, 1047 Games made the strategic decision to halt feature development on the original game to focus entirely on a ground-up sequel. Splitgate 2 was designed to be a triple-A caliber shooter built on Unreal Engine 5, incorporating faction-based hero shooter mechanics alongside the classic portal gameplay.

However, when Splitgate 2 entered its public alpha and beta testing phases in 2024, the reception from the core community was mixed. Many veteran players felt the introduction of distinct character classes and faction abilities diluted the pure, skill-based arena gameplay that had made the original game a viral hit.

Faced with declining engagement and critical feedback, 1047 Games made the difficult decision to take Splitgate 2 back to the drawing board. The game was pulled back into a closed beta state, and the studio executed its first major wave of layoffs to reduce its burn rate as developers retooled the project.

The Reload and the Pivot to Empulse (Late 2024–Present)

In late 2024, the studio attempted to salvage the brand by relaunching the project as Splitgate: Arena Reloaded. This version stripped away many of the controversial hero-shooter elements in favor of a "back-to-basics" design philosophy. Despite a marketing push, the relaunch failed to recapture the massive player numbers of 2021.

Concurrently, the studio had been working on a secondary project: Empulse. Positioned as a spiritual successor to classic, high-mobility shooters like Titanfall, Empulse featured frantic, vertical movement mechanics, giant pilotable mechs, and an aesthetic heavily reminiscent of the Xbox 360 era of first-person shooters.

Empulse launched in early 2025. While early previews praised the game’s fluid movement and nostalgic gunplay, the game’s launch has evidently failed to generate the financial runway required to sustain 1047 Games’ existing workforce, leading directly to the third wave of layoffs documented by departing employees.

Supporting Data: The Economics of the Premium Shooter Market

The difficulties faced by 1047 Games with the launch of Empulse highlight a stark reality in modern game publishing: the high barrier to entry for paid multiplayer games.

The Pricing Pivot

Unlike both iterations of Splitgate, which operated on a free-to-play (F2P) monetization model supported by cosmetic microtransactions, Empulse was released with a premium price tag of $20. While a premium price point ensures immediate revenue per user, it drastically restricts the initial player acquisition funnel—a critical factor for multiplayer-only games that rely on healthy matchmaking pools to survive.

Steam Player Metrics

Publicly available data from SteamDB reveals the uphill battle Empulse has faced since its launch.

• Peak Concurrent Players: Since its release, Empulse has struggled to break past the threshold of 1,000 concurrent players on Steam.
• Matchmaking Health: For a multiplayer shooter, concurrent player counts below 1,000 often result in localized matchmaking delays, skill disparity in lobbies, and a reliance on AI bots to fill matches—factors that rapidly degrade the user experience and accelerate player attrition.
• The Competition: The shooter market in 2024 and 2025 has proven to be incredibly hostile to new entrants. Independent and mid-sized shooters must compete for player attention against entrenched, free-to-play giants such as Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Warzone, Valorant, and Counter-Strike 2, all of which benefit from massive live-service budgets and established player bases.

Official Responses and Studio Leadership Philosophy

At the time of writing, 1047 Games has not issued a formal press release or public statement addressing the latest layoffs. Requests for official comment regarding the number of affected staff and the structural future of the studio have not yet received a formal response.

However, the studio’s operational strategy can be viewed through previous statements made by CEO Ian Proulx. Following the lukewarm reception of the initial Splitgate 2 tests, Proulx adopted a more conservative, long-term outlook for the company’s projects, contrasting sharply with the "next Riot Games" hyper-growth rhetoric of 2021.

Speaking in late 2024 regarding the relaunch of the Splitgate franchise, Proulx stated:

"The goal is to grow over time, not aim for a massive splash on day one. We want to build a stable, dedicated community and iterate based on their feedback, rather than chasing unsustainable launch-day metrics."

While this slow-growth philosophy is a pragmatic approach to modern game development, executing it requires financial runway. For an independent studio, consecutive commercial underperformances quickly deplete cash reserves, forcing leadership to choose between studio-closing insolvency or aggressive headcount reductions to preserve what remains of their capital.

Implications: The "AA" Dilemma and the Human Cost

The ongoing challenges at 1047 Games carry broader implications for both the first-person shooter genre and the video game industry as a whole.

The Death of the "AA" Multiplayer Shooter

The video game industry is increasingly dividing into two extremes: massive, multi-billion dollar AAA live-service operations, and small, highly agile indie games built by micro-studios. Mid-tier or "AA" developers—studios with teams ranging from 50 to 150 developers—are finding themselves in an increasingly untenable position.

These studios require significant capital to produce games that meet modern graphical and mechanical standards, yet they lack the marketing budgets of publishers like Electronic Arts, Activision Blizzard, or Sony. When a AA studio attempts to enter the live-service multiplayer arena, they face a double-edged sword:

1. F2P Route: If they go free-to-play, they must absorb massive server and operational costs while hoping a small percentage of players buy cosmetics.
2. Premium Route: If they charge an upfront fee (like Empulse), they severely limit their player base, which often dooms the multiplayer ecosystem before it can establish itself.

The rapid rise and fall of titles like Concord and Hyenas demonstrate that even major publisher backing does not guarantee success in this space. For an independent studio like 1047 Games, the margins for error are even thinner.

The Human Cost of the Layoff Crisis

The layoffs at 1047 Games are part of a larger, systemic employment crisis within the global video game industry. Following the pandemic-era boom of 2020–2022, during which studios over-hired due to surging player engagement and low interest rates, the industry has undergone a massive correction.

Over 10,000 games industry workers were laid off in 2023, a number that was surpassed in 2024. The trend has continued into 2025, affecting major publishers and independent developers alike. For the developers at 1047 Games, many of whom relocated or committed years of specialized work to transition the studio from a small indie startup to a major contender, these rolling layoffs represent a highly unstable employment environment.

What Lies Ahead for 1047 Games?

With a severely reduced workforce, 1047 Games’ immediate future likely involves consolidating its resources. The studio must now maintain live-service support for Splitgate: Arena Reloaded and Empulse with a skeleton crew, while determining whether a smaller, more focused development model can keep the company afloat.

Whether Empulse can achieve the slow, organic growth that Ian Proulx envisioned remains to be seen. However, without the resources of a large development team, delivering the frequent content updates, seasonal events, and balance patches that modern multiplayer communities expect will be an incredibly difficult task.