A little less than a month after the release of its Titanfall-inspired shooter Empulse, developer 1047 Games has reportedly laid off more employees. While the studio hasn’t made a formal announcement of the cuts, multiple employees on LinkedIn (via Game Developer) have said they’ve been let go in what one described as “the third wave of studio layoffs.”
Reports of layoffs at 1047 began to surface last week. “A bunch of us, ‘the crew’ aboard the 1047 train, are getting off on this post-Empulse station,” QA director Igor Krinitskiy wrote at the time. “It has been an interesting ride, bumpy at times, narrowly avoiding derailment and with everyone working hard to keep that 1047 train going.”
More recent messages also point to multiple cuts across the studio. UI engineer Iannis Stefan Palaczkos wrote that “the studio has been sadly hit by another wave of layoffs, and I got caught in that wave,” while concept artist Jonathan Kuo said separately that “as of the end of this week, it will be my last day at 1047 Games due to the third wave of studio layoffs.”
1047 Games found fast success several years ago with Splitgate: Arena Warfare, a ‘Halo with portals’ mashup that was an immediate hit. That success prompted a $100 million funding round in 2021 and big ambitions about becoming “the next Riot Games,” but nothing has clicked since. Splitgate 2 was a mess, leading to a rollback and layoffs just a couple months after it went live; it was resurrected as Splitgate: Arena Reloaded a few months later but hasn’t attracted anywhere near the players of its predecessors.
Empulse, announced earlier this year, also made a positive early impression but hasn’t drawn big player numbers. Unlike Splitgate, which is free to play, Empulse will cost you $20 to get in, which is no doubt a factor in those smaller numbers. But even in that context, sub-1000 concurrent player counts on Steam aren’t great. Studio CEO Ian Proulx said in 2025 that “the goal is to grow over time, not aim for a massive splash on day one”—he was speaking of Splitgate 2’s relaunch, but it’s a philosophy he’ll have to apply more broadly if Empulse (and, by extension, 1047 itself) is to have any future.
I’ve reached out to 1047 Games for comment on the layoffs and will update if I receive a reply.
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