Splitgate 2 CEO apologizes again, says "I'm not an idiot" and expected "some" controversy, but wasn't being political with his hat at Summer Game Fest: "We needed something to grab attention"

Continuing his Summer Game Fest 2025 cleanup, CEO Ian Proulx of Splitgate 2 developer 1047 Games released a new video explaining and apologizing for the "division" stirred by his comments during the summer event's big showcase, which saw him criticize the state of the FPS genre while wearing a "Make FPS Great Again" that has proven controversial, to say the least.

This video follows additional comments from Proulx stressing that the hat was "not a political statement," and reiterating that "the state of multiplayer FPS games is tragically stale."

In his newest apology, Proulx says he's gotten "a lot of questions about what's up with the hat, why'd you wear it, what was the intent? I want to start by explaining myself."

To begin, Proulx laments that "it is really freakin' hard, as an independent studio, to break through the noise. You go to these award shows – we saw it at [The Game Awards]. We had this great trailer, and there's 50 other great trailers, and it didn't really have an impact."

For Splitgate 2's "biggest stage, coming out of beta, we needed something to grab attention," he adds. Apparently that's where this hat and FPS messaging came in: "The honest truth is, we tried to think of something and this is what we came up with."

This strategy certainly got Splitgate 2 some attention, but not in the way the devs had planned, it seems. "We did not intend for this to be taken in any political way whatsoever," Proulx repeats. "And I'm not an idiot; obviously I knew there would be some level of controversy. But we really saw this as a meme that was kind of stating our truth, which is: we do want to improve this genre. We are disappointed with the state of the genre. We took it as a meme that we thought would not be nearly as received the way it was, negatively received as the way it was." (I've left some minor flubbed words in these quotes uncorrected for exact clarity.)

Many people in the Splitgate 2 community, to say nothing of countless folks watching the game from a distance or simply tuning into Summer Game Fest, very much did not take it as a meme, hence the protracted apology arc.

Proulx continues: "So I want to apologize, and genuinely, you can pretend – you don't have to believe me. But the truth is I am sorry. And the reason I'm sorry is because of what this has done to the community. The most important thing to me right now is: I want to have an amazing community. That is the reason that I built 1047, that's the reason I love my job ... And I hate seeing division. And that's what I'm seeing right now, on both sides. There's division in the community, and for that I am truly sorry."

It is worth remembering that, even on the night of Summer Game Fest following Splitgate 2's big announcement, the game itself seemed to be doing pretty well on the back of the big update that, to some, was overshadowed by the tone of the game's reveal segment. 1047 said they were seeing their "highest-ever" server traffic, and in a tweet posted today, the Splitgate 2 account said "our player base has more than tripled since Beta. Specifically, we've had a ton of recent success on console."

At the time of writing, Splitgate 2 has 12,808 reviews and, according to SteamDB, 22,853 concurrent players (just below its 25,785 peak four days ago) on Steam. Naturally, that doesn't include those console players. Its Steam reviews are "Mixed" at 62% positive.

Still, this whole stink was demonstrably stinky enough to warrant multiple public apologies from Proulx, who says this video ought to be the last one.

"Again, I'll reiterate, I do stand by the intent of this," he concludes. "The intent truly is, take it at face value, we do want to improve this genre. We do feel that the genre is in a bad state, and we want to make FPS games as amazing as possible. But I also understand that it's not just about intent, it's about impact. And the platform that we have had has had a negative impact, and for that I'm truly sorry. I wish things were different and I appreciate all the feedback. That's all I got, guys. But I wanted to put this out there. I hope you'll stick with us, I hope you'll keep the feedback coming. For now, we're just gonna go back to listening and focusing on the game and nothing else. Thank you."

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