"We didn’t make the game of our dreams": Splitgate 2 is a AAA FPS built to "last a decade or more" using everything the first FPS couldn't be, all in Unreal Engine 5
Back and better than ever
It turns out that the mystery announcement developer 1047 Games teased earlier this week was a whole new game. Splitgate 2 - the sequel to 2019's massively popular arena shooter with portals - will release in 2025.
"With Splitgate, we made a game we loved and that our awesome community embraced, but we didn’t make the game of our dreams," 1047 CEO Ian Proulx says in a July 18 PlayStation blog. "I truly believe Splitgate 2 is the game I dreamed of making when Nicholas Bagamian and I got together in a Stanford dorm and decided to put portals in a shooter."
Proulx continues to say that 1047 has been working on Splitgate 2 with a primary goal: “Build a game that can last a decade or more.”
"While it was incredibly hard to stop development on Splitgate in 2022," Proulx says, "after a lot of reflection with the team, I realized that the right path to the best possible version of the game required a true sequel. [...] That meant building from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5, with completely new character models, new maps, new weapons, and even new portal walls and portals.
Like the original Splitgate, Splitgate 2 will be a free-to-play 4v4 multiplayer shooter with portals players can add to maps for speedy, sneaky transportation. It'll also have three factions; Aeros prioritizes speed, Meridian can strategically manipulate time, and Sabrask offers "raw power," says the game's Steam description.
Proulx also promises "some seriously sick character skins and weapons" and base cosmetics that "look better than anything in our first game."
"From visuals to audio design to game modes, our goal was to deliver excellence to players," he says.
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It appears that Splitgate 2 will eventually arrive on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC through both Steam and the Epic Games store, but its 2025 release date currently only applies to its PS4 and PS5 launch. In the meantime, players with iPhone and Androids can now download a Splitgate 2 Companion App for free digital comics that build out the series' backstory, courtesy of a new narrative writer.
Ashley Bardhan is a critic from New York who covers gaming, culture, and other things people like. She previously wrote Inverse’s award-winning Inverse Daily newsletter. Then, as a Kotaku staff writer and Destructoid columnist, she covered horror and women in video games. Her arts writing has appeared in a myriad of other publications, including Pitchfork, Gawker, and Vulture.