Splitgate fans, rejoice: Peer-to-peer multiplayer is coming next week, so you can keep on playing after the servers shut down
Finally, some good news for Splitgate fans: Developer 1047 Games says the original Splitgate will be moving to peer-to-peer multiplayer on August 29, meaning the game will continue to be playable online even though the servers are being taken down.
"Starting August 29, the original Splitgate will be moving to peer-to-peer as we focus our resources on rebuilding Splitgate," 1047 wrote in an update.
"We know this game means the world to so many of you and we're not about to let that disappear. This means you'll still be able to play matches and experience the magic that made Splitgate special, just in a different way."
The move was necessitated in large part by the absolute disaster of Splitgate 2, which went into full release in June, and was then rolled back into a beta state less than two months later.
That meant a downsizing at the studio: Layoffs, of course, and also the closure of Splitgate 1's servers, which 1047 said had "cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past couple of years," money that would be better spent maintaining as much of the dev team as possible.
The studio said at the time that it was "exploring the possibility of supporting offline or peer-to-peer matches," and full credit where it's due, it has come through. Peer-to-peer networking will be available on both PC and consoles, and it will be cross-platform; achievements will not be earnable after August 29, but players will keep all previously purchased content and cosmetics, which I don't think really matters because everything is being given to all players anyway.
1047 is also putting out a bunch of "previously unreleased, stockpiled, or work in progress" content for Splitgate, including 13 WIP "blockout arena maps" and an unreleased Takedown mode map called Simulation Juliet. Races and the Map Creator will also still be available, although the Races leaderboard will not, so only your best personal time will be tracked.
The battle pass, rewards center, store, and drops are also being eliminated, but again, it doesn't matter because everyone is getting all the cosmetic items anyway.
It's not a great outcome—that would've been a successful Splitgate 2 launch, enabling continued support for the original—but under the circumstances, I'd say it's about as good as anyone could have asked for.
"You've invested time, energy, and passion into the original Splitgate, which deserves to be preserved," 1047 wrote. "Our community is everything to us. While we can't keep the full online infrastructure running indefinitely, we can make sure the game itself lives on for anyone who wants to keep playing. We have seen a lot of conversations about the #StopKillingGames movement, and empathize with players who lose access to their favorite titles. We absolutely do not want our community to lose access to theirs."