Splitgate 2 announced and it's the Halo and Portal mashup we all need
If the idea of a Halo and Portal mashup sounds like your dream game, well, you're in luck. Two years after development wound down on Splitgate and the game was resigned to its own infinite beta, the team at 1047 Games is back with something new(ish).
While the 1047 Games team was only considered an indie developer back then, Splitgate raked in over two million active players a day and raised an additional $100 million from investors due to its overwhelming success. Instead of putting the money back into Splitgate, the team went in a new direction.
Splitgate 2 is a whole new game
Writing on a PlayStation blog, 1047 CEO Ian Proulx explains what happened to the OG and what Splitgate 2 is doing differently. "I truly believe Splitgate 2 is the game I dreamed of making when Nicholas Bagamian and I got together in a Stanford dorm and decided to put portals in a shooter," said Proulx.
Although the team isn't willing to give much away yet, we're told Splitgate 2 is a multiplayer first-person shooter that's made in Unreal Engine 5, and best yet, it's free-to-play. There's a faction system like Ubisfot's recent XDefiant, but unlike that one, there are portals. Well, duh.
As for why this is Splitgate 2 and not a continuation of the original, Proulx said, "I realized that the right path to the best possible version of the game required a true sequel. We had to start fresh, in some ways. That meant building from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5, with completely new character models, new maps, new weapons, and even new portal walls and portals."
There are key objectives of "How do we keep this fun all year round?" and "Build a game that can last a decade or more." Given the hype surrounding Splitgate, there's a genuine chance that its successor can muscle into the crowded FPS market and make itself heard.
We're told that Splitgate 2 is coming to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox in 2025, meaning 1047 Games has a little longer to tinker beneath the hood. From today (July 18), you can download the Splitgate 2 Companion App, which plans to expand the game's lore through a free digital comic series.
Interestingly, the official Splitgate 2 X account has reiterated it's NOT a hero shooter, putting an emphasis on its factions and distancing itself from the likes of Overwatch. A community playtest is coming later this year, while a mention of Gamescom is a date to mark in your diary.
