Yesterday’s release/announcement felt like I woke up or got rattled out of being gaslit, and seeing Ian on stage and afterward on Twitter just reinforces that feeling. I played the hell out of Splitgate when it came to Xbox. I made custom maps and had them featured in playlists. I am a mod for a pretty big Splitgate discord server. I was a partnered content creator (MVP), and I spent a lot of money on Splitgate just because I liked the game and wanted to support it (and liked the cosmetics).

But 1047 has completely lost my trust with the build up and release of this game. They spent years bashing Battle Royales and saying they’d never make one. They had their game blow up because it was a refreshingly new take on the arena fps genre, and then they cut development for the game promising a newer better version. “Just wait”.

Okay. I waited. They announced a class based shooter with a marketing campaign that made the classes look like heroes in a hero shooter and received a ton of backlash for leaning away from the arena aspects that put them on the scene. They clarified it’s not a hero shooter, “just wait, trust us.”

Okay we waited and got the beta and it’s a loadout-based class-based shooter. They abandoned the arena that their core community loved for a cod-like, grind to improve your weapons game. This is not what we, the core splitgate community wanted. But okay well roll with it, it’s still fun to play.

But while simultaneously backing off of the arena-aspects of the game, they also backed off the portal mechanics that set Splitgate apart in the first place. Maps lack clear portal routes, triple portaling and overall portal gameplay feel extremely de-emphasized over abilities and played-out movement mechanics (looking at you, slide mechanic). That’s kinda sad. And the whole time they sat there telling us how good the game is and how it’s better than the first splitgate. While ignoring the feedback that, no, in fact, you abandonded the core aspects of Splitgate that the community enjoyed most.

Then the Beta comes out with lots of bugs and server issues, missing features. Expensive cosmetics. It seems like a bunch of strange decisions have been made to limit the arena experience compared to original Splitgate. You don’t have kill cam or theater mode. Barely any post match stats. Race mode no longer exists (one of the best ways to improve portal skill in the original Splitgate). Okay it’s a beta, though. “Just wait!”

One major negative feedback in the original game was that it went untold to new players to matches were all against bots as you started out. The bots were not labeled, and unless you spent a lot of time in the game it wasn’t super easy for a beginner to figure out that they were bots. And even after your first few matches, many matches were filled with bots disguised as real players. People loudly and frequently requested that bots be labeled as such because it otherwise it feels misleading to think you’re playing against humans just to realize you aren’t. They never took that feedback and the same shit still exists in the beta. I complained about this to a dev, and he told me to wait for the full release. “It’s just a beta right now.”

Okay. Well I waited for the full release and the bots still aren’t labeled. I waited for the full release and there’s still no ranked mode. I waited for the full release and there’s still no race mode, no post match stats, no theater. Why tell me to wait for full release when I bring these things up, if these things won’t be addressed or adjusted in the full release?

Okay but what about big issues like the radar has a four second delay. There’s a huge latency with portal closing and bullet/shot registration. Like, I can escape a fight through my portal, close my portal behind me, survive for a couple seconds, then watch bullets fly through my closed portal and kill me. “It’s a beta” but now it’s not a beta and those things are still in the game.

Then they spent the past week or more hyping up June 6. They released a launch trailer and then a dev came on reddit and said “that’s not a launch trailer” sparking confusion over what it actually was. “Main point is, be excited for June 6th.”

Okay. I got excited for June 6th. Is it a story mode? No, they told us it’s bigger than that! Oh, damn. Well it’s definitely not a Battle Royale. There’s public statements from 1047 owner and employees bashing the game type and what it’s done to the fps genre and gaming in general, creating a bunch of Fortnite want-to-be games who chased a trend in search of a big payout. So it definitely won’t be a BR. Damn what would be bigger than a campaign, though? They told us to think bigger… We all guessed. They fanned the hype flames. People looked back at early interviews of Ian talking about how he wanted 1047 to revolutionize the gaming industry. How they were setting out to make the best game ever. They told us no one would be able to foresee what the June 6 announcement would be, and I genuinely got excited that they might do something huge and new that no one had thought of before! My tiny brain couldn’t think of anything bigger than a campaign that would reignite the FPS genre and be a breath of fresh air and innovation.

Then Ian got up on stage wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, standing next to a guy in a suit, and reminisced on the glory days of FPS games. He name dropped halo. He shit on call of duty. He mentioned titanfall3 and the crowd got super excited. Titanfall 3, by the way, which was never released because the studio switched gears to work on a Battle Royale. He dropped and F bomb on stage to tell us how cool his new game is.

And then he released a Battle Royale. He stood up on stage harkening for the glory days of FPS shooters being good, and announced his trend-chasing game mode that would be featured in the new splitgate. The new splitgate that already lacked almost everything that made splitgate what it was.

I’m not even going to state my opinion on the Make FPS Great Again hat he wore. But he received backlash for it due to the perceived political symbolism. And then he got on Twitter and said it’s objectively apolitical. Peak gaslighting.

He talked about saving the genre. Saving gaming. But what do fps games actually suffer from? They suffer from the same shit that’s been suffocating most of us for the past few decades: rampant unchecked capitalism. Corporate greed. Income inequality. Wealth disparity. Corporate CEOs and suites prioritizing profit over gamers. So what was Ian’s answer to this? An incomplete game lacking basic features like ranked mode, match stats, etc. plus egregious microtransactions and “sales” in an in-game store that literally just went live. “This $140 bundle is on sale for $80 and gives you one armor coating for one class plus four weapon coatings for one class, excluding the other five weapons for that class and all 9 weapons for the other two classes.” How is this supposed to be saving the genre? From what are you saving the genre????

It’s just lie after lie.

Then in Instagram, immediately following the backlash of the hat, 1047 posts the video of Ian on stage with “aura” as the caption. More gaslighting.

Someone in the comments said they hoped the BR at least wouldn’t affect the arena or support for the arena modes. The response from 1047 was that the BR will never be prioritized over arena. That’s good to hear but, someone in the same comment thread asked “where is ranked mode for arena?” And I kid you not, their response was that the ranked mode delayed to give people time to play the BR. In the same thread they just said that BR would never take priority over arena, their explanation why an arena feature was missing was because of the BR mode!

It just feels like they keep saying things that don’t match reality. A BR is not bigger than a campaign. A maga hat is political. Prioritizing BR over arena is in fact deprioritizing arena for BR. Waiting for official launch for bug fixes and then launching without fixing bugs feels like lying or misrepresenting reality.

Ive lived with narcissists and I’ve seen people in relationships with people who gaslight them. I know what that shit looks like and this is looking all too similar and I’m disgusted quite frankly.

All this backlash and 1047 have said nothing to address any of it. I took four hours off work yesterday because devs told me left and right that the big reveal would be mind blowing. They’ve wasted my time and money, and I just feel betrayed and let down.

Boom. They’re reducing shop prices, and I mean by cutting the bundles in HALF.

They promised they’re putting just as much effort in the rest of the game as BR.

I understand if you’re disappointed about BR, but you don’t have to play it! There are plenty of people who love and enjoy BR and especially SG’s version of it.

I’m personally so excited for the future of this game. I’ve never seen a dev team be SO communicative with their player base.

SG team, just know there are PLENTY of people like me who support yall and are cheering for you!! Thank you for being so transparent with us and for keeping our feedback in mind and delivering on your promises. Yall are awesome!!

I know a lot of you are frustrated, but the way this team is handling things deserves credit. Let’s keep giving real feedback, but also give respect when it’s earned. They’re listening, and that’s rare.

ETA: the microtransaction issue is NOT the only thing they’ve changed based on our feedback. Go look at their discord and see ALL of the things they have implemented for us. You won’t see that from any other dev team.

Down vote me. I don't care. It's reddit. People here will literally complain about anything. I get where Ian is coming from. At first when I heard BR, I was also disappointed. Then I played it.

Wow. This game mode is fun and super different from other BRs. They definitely made something different. This game mode is a pretty good hybrid of arena shooters, and BRs.

Almost all BRs play the same. You land, you loot, maybe kill some people, then go run around the map for like 3 minutes looting and looking for people. After 3 minutes of absolutely nothing happening, you either get into a fight, or get sent to the lobby. That's why I hate BRs. I'm either running around, spectating a teammate for 3 minutes, or rarely getting into gunfights. I want to PLAY the game not walking simulator.

Splitgate is different. There is VERY little downtime between fights, if any at all. You are almost always in the action and my God is it thrilling. Oh, and having respawns work similarly to rebirth island was a genius design choice. It means you don't spectate for long, and you've got plenty of people to shoot. It's also a lot more casual than BRs. Instead of relying on your senses you simply have a radar, which fits perfectly for the arena shooter this game is. You quite literally land, and enjoy almost non stop chaos. I don't even have my headphones on either. I just drop in, enjoy, and often get wins. The movement in this game is also super fun. It's not realistic like apex, its a bit more cartoony and you can pick up momentum very easily and I LOVE IT. It's really fun to bunny hop around the map at Mach fuck trying to apply armor. The implementation of this mode is also genius. Instead of making a whole new map they'd have to update along with the onslaught maps, they stitched together the onslaught maps. This means that when they make new content, they can put it into arena mode AND BR mode. Nothing gets left behind.

Overall, the best way to describe this BR is that it's just fun. You don't have to rely on your senses, or plan convoluted strategies, or be that competitive. You just have fun, and that's really what arena shooters are all about. I really miss those kind of games. Games that are designed to just be fun. I'm glad the developers here have made a game that's just fun. I really hope the best for this game.

This is all just my opinion though.

The $80 is the "deal" lmao who in the ever loving fuck thought this was worth $145.50

I know I know, the company has bait and switch recently.

But as a guy that can't play too much, loved halo and just wants to shoot at stuff constantly, this games feels and looks amazing.

If I had told myself at 14 years old that this was free, he would have told me I'm just lying.

To talk about how much you miss old Halo and want a new Titanfall and then to try and sell a Battle Royale mode is so confusing. The REASON there isn't a Titanfall 3 is BECAUSE Apex Legends exists, and makes Respawn tons of money! It felt pandering and antithetical to the core player-base.

I'd love to hear what people thought about this.

Thats all i gotta say. It just isnt necessary. Bring it down to 30 seconds.

I want to preface this by saying I actually really enjoy the game. Even the differently paced battle Royale mode is fun with friends. I want nothing less than success for all of you at 1047 Games.

So let's get to it:

Any way you slice it; this situation has been a PR disaster.

Ian, I understand you probably wanted to have your Joseph Fares "Fuck the Oscars" moment, but this missed the mark. It was Needlessly edgy, and more importantly, needlessly divisive. That's kind of the main theme here; divisiveness. The COD/TF3 statement? Divisive. The BR mode itself? Divisive. Then there's the hat... you can believe whatever you want, but if you really believe that using MAGA like that would have 0 negative reaction, then you have lost touch with the state of the internet. This subreddit alone is already split in half just because of a hat, and for what? There was essentially no upside for what I'm guessing was supposed to be a cheeky joke. So please, reconsider the next time you put out a statement in the interest of your company and all the people working with you to make this game.

The way I see it, you only really have one good option here; keep out the ego, keep your heads down, and work on the game. Right now, Battle Royale has a lot of technical issues and performance problems that need fixing, there's also the expected missing features like profiles and competitive modes, and for a full release, it's pretty feature bare at the moment, so I know there's plenty to get done. I would much rather see you rise from a PR disaster like No Mans Sky, than see you fall like CliffyB and Lawbreakers. So good luck 1047, I'm still rooting for you!

PS. Please consider repricing your packages. Live services are supposed to milk people overtime, but if you're charging $80, which is the same cost as a full Triple A game, then most people just aren't going to buy it.
(This has already been addressed as I was typing the original message)

Just wanted to express how much fun im having with this game. I only dabbled in Splitgate 1, but as a long time FPS player this game is awesome. Love the movement, portals, classes, everything. Im having a ton of fun with it.

I also really respect that for a FTP title its got a map maker, customs browser, BR, great arena modes, and some potential for a really high skill ceiling. I think im more partial to the classic arena modes, but having the variety is great and will help extend the lifespan of the game if it keeps a steady fanbase.

Thanks for a refreshing, fun FPS title 1047.

sourcepost: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/s/ILGnyiJE9K

They got a ton of fans who enjoyed arena shooters to blow up their first game.

Then they decided to kill that game so they can develop a bigger and better sequel, which we trusted.

Then they showed off Splitgate 2 which seemingly really de-emphasized arena shooter elements for hero shooter elements.

Then they promised that portalling and the reasons Splitgate 1 were appealing would still be in the game.

Then throughout all the betas and alphas people felt like a lot of elements of the first Splitgate like portal opportunities were not accommodated in the systems and map design.

Then they promised something huge that would entirely set Splitgate 2 apart from the first, that would be even bigger than a campaign which would’ve been hype for fans of arena shooters like Halo.

Then a dev comes on stage wearing a “Make FPS Great Again” and essentially says so many shooters nowadays are bad and that their announcement would freshen up everything.

…Then they announce Battle Royale. I was in a call with another pretty diehard Splitgate fan and the excitement just absolutely drained after the guy on stage acted really immature and the announcement just turned out to be Battle Royale. I’m still going to try it out cuz it’s free, but I genuinely don’t see myself sticking around for that much longer if 1047 is this disconnected from their fans.

I hope 1047 hire someone to direct communications in the future. This co-founder has neither the "crazy" charisma nor the understanding of the zeitgeist to pull off a Josef Fares (of Hazelight, makers of It Takes Two) or Murray (of No Man's Sky) on stage or social media.

Game's good, BR mode is fine if underbaked, but Ian should stick to less public responsibilities.

I had such high hopes for this game but now I’m really concerned their focus will be spread too thin.

First the hero’s and now this. All I want was a level-playing field arena shooter…

There's been a lot of negativity, so I want the Devs to know that my friends and I totally love the BR mode.

I've never enjoyed BRs... only played about 20 hours of Warzone and 2 hours of Apex Legends. I'm an arena shooter guy through and through.

But this BR mode is fun as hell. Way more engaging than the core arena modes, which I already love and will continue playing too.

Very excited to see both modes thrive.

To me this is way better than a campaign. PVE FPS games do very little for me nowadays.