Splitgate started as a franchise with an idea that extended a great single-player game into a multiplayer experience. And Splitgate 2 hopes to expand the franchise further.
As hardcore gamers all know, Valve created a cool experience with Portal, where you could slap a cross-dimensional portal on a wall, then shoot at a distance spot to create another portal. Then you could move into the portal and emerge at the other portal. It was an amazing game experience.
But Ian Proulx and his team at 1047 Games came up with the idea that a dimensional portal would be a great basis for a multiplayer game. They executed on that idea where Valve didn’t, and the innovation turned out to have a big payoff. The first Splitgate game got more than 22 million downloads since 2019 on the consoles and the PC.
And now the sequel is expected to come out in 2025. The new title is a free-to-play multiplayer shooter game that pits four human players against four other humans. You choose your faction, customize your weapons and master your portal skills. I played the game recently and found that those who make proper use of the portal tricks are the ones that come up behind you and take you out.
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The timing has been good for 1047 Games, as the success enabled 1047 Games to raise $100 million in venture capital funding in 2021– which turned out to be the heyday for game venture capital. And now the company is investing a lot of that money in an expanded team. All told, 1047 Games has more than 175 people. And the game will debut on Steam, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Epic Games Store.
I caught up with Ian Proulx, CEO of 1047 Games, at the recent Gamescom event in Cologne in August.
Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.
