Gaming

1047 Games Hit by Third Round of Cuts in a Year Just Weeks After Empulse Debut

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Key takeaways

1047 Games has undergone a third round of layoffs in under a year, with an associate art director, QA director, and community specialist among those publicly confirming departures.
The cuts come less than a month after the studio launched Empulse, a wall-running mech shooter that received generally positive reviews but remains in early access.
The exact number of employees affected is unknown, though a previous round saw 45 workers let go; no official statement has been issued by the studio.

Troubles continue to mount at 1047 Games, the studio behind the once-popular arena shooter Splitgate, as a third consecutive round of layoffs has emerged less than a month after the studio launched its follow-up title, Empulse. The cuts were first flagged by Game Developer, which noticed a wave of LinkedIn posts from affected employees announcing their departures. The timing — coming so swiftly after a major release — has raised serious questions about the health of the studio and the commercial traction of its newest game.

Empulse, which launched in early access last month, is a wall-running, mech-infused first-person shooter that drew immediate comparisons to Respawn's beloved but discontinued Titanfall series. The game received a broadly positive critical reception, with reviewers noting its kinetic movement and mechanical depth. However, early access launches live and die by sustained player engagement, and whether Empulse has managed to build a large enough audience to justify its development costs remains an open and troubling question.

Among those publicly confirming their layoffs is an associate art director who wrote on LinkedIn that it would be their last day at 1047 Games 'due to the third wave of studio layoffs,' expressing gratitude for colleagues while lamenting that their time at the studio was shorter than hoped. The studio's QA director was also let go, writing a candid farewell message referencing 'the crew' aboard what they called the '1047 train' disembarking at a 'post-Empulse station.' A community specialist was also among those affected, further suggesting the cuts span multiple departments.

The scale of this latest round remains unconfirmed. To provide context, the second round of layoffs at 1047 Games resulted in 45 employees losing their positions, while the first round's numbers were never officially disclosed. This third wave now marks a troubling pattern of workforce reductions across barely a twelve-month period, suggesting the studio is under sustained financial or strategic pressure that predates the Empulse launch.

1047 Games has not issued a public statement addressing the layoffs, and the reasons behind them remain unclear. The studio initially rose to prominence when Splitgate went viral in 2021, attracting millions of players and significant investor attention. Whether Empulse can recapture that lightning-in-a-bottle momentum — or whether the studio is now in a prolonged contraction — may determine 1047's long-term survival as an independent developer.

The bigger picture

The pattern emerging at 1047 Games is one that the games industry has seen far too many times in recent years: a studio bets heavily on a new title, launches into an already-saturated market, and then scrambles to right-size its workforce when commercial results fall short of projections. What makes the 1047 situation particularly striking is the speed of it — three rounds of layoffs in roughly twelve months signals that whatever financial runway the studio secured off Splitgate's viral success has been burning faster than anticipated. Empulse may be a good game, but good games do not automatically translate to sustainable live-service audiences.

The early access model complicates the picture further. Releasing a game in an unfinished state can build community goodwill and generate revenue simultaneously, but it also invites a volatile launch period where first impressions are fragile and player retention is everything. If Empulse's concurrent player counts have been disappointing in its opening weeks, that would explain why 1047 is cutting costs before the game even reaches full release — a grim signal that the studio may not be projecting strong enough growth to justify its current headcount.

For the broader industry, 1047 Games serves as a cautionary tale about the difficulty of converting viral success into durable studio infrastructure. The Splitgate moment was real, but building and sustaining a team capable of shipping a second major game is an entirely different challenge. Readers should watch whether 1047 offers any transparency about its plans for Empulse's development roadmap, and whether the remaining team is large enough to continue supporting the game meaningfully in the months ahead.

LagPing's take

We're covering this story because it sits at a painful intersection of issues we care deeply about at LagPing: the human cost of game development, the brutal economics of the live-service shooter market, and what happens to studios after their defining moment passes. 1047 Games had one of the most remarkable grassroots success stories of the early 2020s with Splitgate, and watching that goodwill struggle to translate into long-term stability is genuinely difficult to see. We also think the timing here matters — layoffs arriving before a newly launched game has even had a chance to find its footing raise questions about planning, funding, and expectations that deserve scrutiny. These aren't just business statistics; there are real people losing their jobs in what remains an incredibly tough job market for game developers. We'll continue tracking how Empulse performs and whether 1047 Games makes any official comment on the studio's current state.

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