1047 Games
Indie studio behind Splitgate and Empulse, once a $1.5B unicorn, now shrinking fast.
On the record
Checkpoint: Empulse's planned 9 to 12 month Early Access period ends, testing whether it holds any player base
The call
Three rounds of layoffs, two failed launches, and a five-year-old valuation describe a studio losing ground to giants while its own games struggle to hold players.
1047 Games makes competitive online games, most famously Splitgate, which added a portal-jumping mechanic to first-person shooter gameplay. The company faces a crowded market dominated by Valorant, Counter-Strike 2, Apex Legends, Call of Duty, and Halo, which are backed by publishers like Riot, Valve, and Microsoft that have much larger budgets and established player bases. The portal mechanic itself is not hard to copy, the studio's brand has weakened after layoffs and server shutdowns, and new AI tools are making it cheaper and faster for other small teams to build games from scratch, so 1047 Games has lost much of its advantage. The one thing that could reset the picture is if Empulse retains players over the next few months instead of collapsing like the last two launches, combined with a significant cash injection by the end of 2026.
Why
01
AI pressure: Generative AI-assisted indie game development tools. Cheap AI-assisted dev tools let more small studios clone the portal mechanic and ship rival shooters faster than 1047 can recover. Could AI do the core job? Yes, likely.
02
Bigger players: Valorant (Riot), Counter-Strike 2 (Valve), Apex Legends (EA), Call of Duty (Activision), Halo (Xbox). These free-to-play shooters already hold the player base Empulse and Splitgate need, and none are losing ground to 1047. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. A loyal core of Splitgate fans and the still-uncopied portal mechanic are what keep any players around at all.
What would change this call
Empulse daily concurrent player count on Steam through its Early Access window. Sustained 10K+ would show recovery; continued collapse confirms retention failure pattern.
Any priced funding round announcement by end of 2026. A name-brand investor round would signal renewed confidence; absence signals continued distress.
Announcement of a fourth layoff round or studio sale/shutdown. Would confirm the company cannot sustain operations on current revenue and cash.
Any priced funding round announcement by end of 2026. A name-brand investor round would signal renewed confidence; absence signals continued distress.
Announcement of a fourth layoff round or studio sale/shutdown. Would confirm the company cannot sustain operations on current revenue and cash.
Key numbers
- $126.5M raised total, last priced round Sept 2021
- Splitgate 2 Steam peak ~10,059 concurrent, then fell
- Empulse peak ~2,860 concurrent, fell to ~1,200-1,400
Named risks
- Three layoff rounds in 13 months (June 2025, July 2025, July 2026) signal ongoing cash problems.
- No priced funding round since September 2021, $1.5B valuation unreconfirmed for nearly five years.
- Repeated failed launches: Splitgate 2, Arena Reloaded, and Empulse all show collapsing concurrent players within weeks.
- Sector-wide 2026 games funding freeze, evidenced by Double Fine layoffs July 28, 2026.
- Genre dominated by Riot, Valve, EA, and Microsoft, each with far greater resources.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Riot Games (Valorant) | losing to | Riot employs 4,500+ staff vs 1047's shrinking team of dozens as of July 2026 |
| Valve (Counter-Strike 2) | losing to | Legacy tactical shooter with entrenched esports base 1047 cannot match |
| EA/Respawn (Apex Legends) | losing to | Dominant battle royale/movement shooter competing for same skill-based audience |
| NetEase (FragPunk) | gaining on | NetEase-backed FragPunk pitched to break tactical shooter duopoly as of 2024-07-02 |
| Activision/Microsoft (Call of Duty) | losing to | Explicit marketing target of Splitgate 2 CEO, vastly larger franchise resources |
Questions people ask
- Is 1047 Games profitable in 2026?
- No public revenue or profit figures exist. The studio has cut staff three times in 13 months (June 2025, July 2025, July 2026) and co-founders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian have gone unpaid since June 2025, signals inconsistent with profitability.
- Who owns 1047 Games?
- 1047 Games is privately held and venture-backed, founded by Stanford students Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian. Investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Insight Partners, and Anthos Capital from its $100M Series B closed September 15, 2021 at a $1.5B valuation.
- Is 1047 Games's $1.5B valuation still accurate?
- No new priced funding round has been reported since the September 15, 2021 Series B that set the $1.5B valuation. As of March 23, 2026, CBInsights still lists that round as the company's latest, making the figure nearly five years stale.
- Could AI replace 1047 Games?
- No evidence shows 1047 Games has deployed AI tools in development or operations as of July 2026. The bigger threat is generative AI lowering costs for rival indie shooters to compete, not AI replacing the studio's creative work directly.
- Is it risky to join 1047 Games right now?
- Yes. The studio has cut staff three times in 13 months, most recently mid-July 2026 after Empulse's early access reception, and shut down original Splitgate's servers in July 2025 due to lack of funds.
- Who is 1047 Games's biggest competitor?
- 1047 Games competes against Valorant (Riot Games, 4,500+ staff), Counter-Strike 2 (Valve), Apex Legends (EA/Respawn), Call of Duty (Activision/Microsoft), and NetEase-backed FragPunk, all far better resourced than 1047's shrinking team.
Timeline
- 2026-07-22Third layoff round hits 1047 Games after Empulse's weak early access reception
- 2026-06-24Empulse launches into Early Access on PC/Xbox at $19.99, pitched as Titanfall successor
- 2025-12-17Splitgate: Arena Reloaded relaunches, fusing Splitgate 1 and 2 elements
- 2025-07-22Splitgate 2 'unlaunched', second layoff round, original Splitgate servers shut down for lack of funds
- 2025-06-21First layoff round; co-founders forgo salaries amid Splitgate 2 turbulent launch
- 2025-06-06Splitgate 2 fully launches on PC and consoles after May 22 open beta
- 2021-09-151047 Games raises $100M Series B led by Lightspeed at $1.5B post-money valuation
- 2021-051047 Games closes $6.5M seed round led by Galaxy Interactive
Revision history
29 July 2026
First assessed. Little protection left. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- 1047 Games
- 1047 Games raises $100M at $1.5B valuation after 13M Splitgate downloads (2021-09-15)
- Products, Competitors, Financials, Employees, Headquarters Locations (2026-03-23)
- Splitgate 2 Dev 1047 Games Hit by Layoffs Amid Turbulent Launch (2025-06-21)
- Splitgate 2 Boss Says $80 Skin Bundle 'Slipped Through The Cracks' (2025-07-31)
- Splitgate 2 'unlaunches,' studio to cut staff ahead of 2026 rerelease
- Splitgate 2 (2026-07-04)
- 1047 Games Cuts Jobs After Empulse Early Access (2026-07-22)
- 1047 Games Suffers More Layoffs Following 'Empulse' Launch (2026-07-14)
- 1047 Games - Overview, News & Similar companies (2026-07-06)
- Who We Are | Riot Games
- Can Fragpunk Be The Game To Break The Tactical Shooter Duopoly? (2024-07-02)