Splitgate 2 Dev Finally Apologizes After Summer Game Fest Stunt Backfires

Splitgate 2 has had a terrible week since its launch, that’s now reached the point where the studio’s lead developer, Ian Proulx, is now apologized. But to explain all of this, we need to answer this question: how did we get here?

The first Splitgate launched all the way back in 2019, for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. 1047 Games’ founders, Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian, came up with the idea of bringing the portal mechanics from Valve’s Portal to an online shooter like Halo, and making it free-to-play.

Splitgate didn’t even get noticed at its early access launch in 2019, but it unexpectedly went viral after its beta in 2021. It reached the point that 1047 was forced to repeatedly take servers offline to adjust to the demand. The game definitely has its fans, but the seeming consensus is the novelty of its premise isn’t enough to make it a breakout hit.

1047 revealed they ended active development on Splitgate in 2022 to work on a new free-to-play game in the same universe. Even that early on, fans expected that they were working on a Splitgate 2, and just had to wait for the announcement.

The announcement came in last week’s Summer Game Fest, but it arrived in controversial fashion. Proulx came on stage wearing a “Make Games Great Again” hat, and then claimed that he was ‘tired of playing Call of Duty every year’, before revealing the Splitgate 2 trailer. But that was only the start.

The trailer revealed that 1047 was adding a battle royale mode to the game, which players criticized for obviously joining that bandwagon. But what clinched it was the steep prices of microtransactions when players finally got into the game. This included a $ 145 bundle, that was discounted to $ 80.

And so, the game launched to mixed reviews as gamers immediately raised the above points. 1047 Games would then promise to lower microtransaction prices and give out refunds. Proulx then went online to claim that he personally didn’t know there was a $ 145/80 bundle, and threw blame to their head of monetization.

While Proulx originally claimed that his hat was not a political statement, he has finally also officially apologized for it. As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Proulx shared this statement in a new video:

At our biggest stage, coming out of beta, we needed something to grab attention, and the honest truth is we tried to think of something, and this is what we came up with. We did not intend for this to be taken in any political way whatsoever. 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 stating our truth, which is we do want to improve this genre and we are disappointed with the state of the genre. The truth is I am sorry, and the reason I’m sorry is because of what this has done to the community… There’s division in the community, and for that I am truly sorry.

This goes without saying, but in the same year that Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford fails to explain he doesn’t decide the price of Borderlands 4, the Genshin Impact fanbase turns on the game’s voice actors, and the once popular Infinity Nikki faces a “girl-cott”, now is a terrible time for a game to deliberately court controversy. We don’t think Proulx’s actions, or even those in 1047’s management who approved this stunt, represent the opinions of everyone who worked on the game. But as the leaders and decision makers in the company, they were responsible for this backlash and its fallout.

We hope 1047 Games is able to properly turn this situation around, which they’ll have to do in both word and deed. It wouldn’t be fair to everyone in that studio if their game gets cancelled for things they did not want or agree to. We also hope the industry recognizes this as a sign not to try anything like this this year, and in the near future. Considering where the video game business is right now, it’s the last thing that any studio needs.