With Steam players down over 90%, Splitgate 2 dev un-releases the game, lays off more staff, and plans to shut down OG servers as fans fear another live service death: "We understand it's our last chance"

After a disappointing Steam launch that's seen steep player dropoff, Splitgate 2 studio 1047 Games is attempting the gamble that has seen the death of multiple live service games, from Multiversus to Amazon's Crucible: the dreaded un-release and relaunch.

"We're going back to beta," the studio declares in a new Steam post. "We'll be heads down until early next year, rebuilding major parts of the game to capture the spirit of what made Splitgate special. That means reworking progression from the ground up, adding more portals to our maps, simplifying monetization, refocusing on classic game modes you've been asking for, and more, which we’ll share soon."

Splitgate 2 "will remain playable, and we'll still be shipping Chapter 3, as well as fixes and high-priority changes," 1047 somewhat confusingly adds.

That's part of the problem with this drastic emergency countermeasure; it always muddies the water on already muddy launches. And Splitgate 2's launch has definitely been muddy.

SteamDB shows that Splitgate 2 peaked at 25,785 concurrent players last month, but steady decline has led it to a 24-hour peak of 1,839 – a 93% dropoff, depending on the day and time. Splitgate 2 has racked up 18,260 61% positive Steam reviews to the original Splitgate's 91% positive 111,733 lifetime reviews.

It hasn't gone well, you could say. Or as 1047 put it: "We launched too early. We had ambitious goals with Splitgate 2, and in our excitement to share it with you, we bit off more than we could chew. We rushed certain features, made some boneheaded mistakes, and most importantly – we didn't give you the polished, portal-filled mayhem you fell in love with."

Additionally, the studio announced that "we’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to reduce certain roles and shift our resources to focus on this rework," laying off yet more people just weeks after the last cuts. And to top it off, "we're also going to be shutting down OG Splitgate servers in a month," 1047 says.

"We've faced a lot of dark days and have made many mistakes, but we've learned a lot and are as determined as ever to make Splitgate as great as possible," co-founders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian conclude. (Proulx, you may remember, made several headlines last month in a protracted saga apologizing for a Summer Game Fest snafu.) "Splitgate has been our life for 10 years, and we wouldn't have it any other way. We've got work to do, but we aren't giving up."

1047 is calling on players "now more than ever" to help shape the game into what it was apparently meant to be, but this glut of bad news hasn't inspired confidence across the community.

"Unreleasing the game the first time killed it off. It was doing well before that," read a top reply to one Reddit post sharing the news.

"You get one chance to make a first impression," observes aradraugfea.

"Let's put an F in the chat for the OG Splitgate," a top reply in the Splitgate subreddit laments.

The official Splitgate Reddit account has been addressing comments and concerns where possible, but it's all a bit down all over.

"We understand it's our last chance," the studio said in response to one user hoping the relaunch somehow works out. "All we can do is hope to build the Splitgate everyone deserves."

Addressing plans for the original Splitgate, the devs added: "We're still exploring options for how best to serve players who want to play Splitgate 1. Specifics haven't been decided yet."

"Some people may never come back, and that's on us," another dev reply admits. "All we can do is work hard to deliver the game you all deserve."

I know I sound very down about the odds and optics here, and that's because I am, but there is some merit to a relaunch and some games have won this gamble in the past. But boy does 1047 have its work cut out for it.

Splitgate 2 director says it was "news to me" that the FPS launched with $80 bundles, blames former monetization head "who happened to come from Call of Duty."