About

Splitgate is a free-to-play arena shooter multiplayer video game that incorporates player-created portals as the core part of its design. Described as a mashup of elements from Halo and Portal, the game achieved viral popularity during its soft relaunch beta period in July and August 2021.

History

On August 18th, 2017, Nevada-based developer 1047 Games released a pre-alpha trailer^[1] for its free-to-play arena shooter Splitgate, originally named Wormhole Wars. The game, inspired by the Portal puzzle game series, incorporated player-created wormhole portals as its core mechanic, with players able to open portals in many areas of the map in order to instantly move between them and gain a tactical advantage over opponents.

On May 24th, 2019, Splitgate was officially released for Windows and Linux as a free-to-play game with cosmetic microtransactions.^[2]

🔴 Splitgate is now OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED! 🔵Alpha / Beta testers get the exclusive Charger weapon skin.Anyone who plays in the first week gets the exclusive Gray M90 weapon skin.🔥 See you all in the #Splitgate arena. 🔥Play for free now via Steam: https://t.co/PZAxz9TvuS pic.twitter.com/xqqDmBPULO

— Splitgate (@Splitgate) May 24, 2019

The game did not achieve mainstream attention until July 2021 when the game re-entered a beta period prior to its launch on PlayStation 4/5 and Xbox One and Series X/S consoles.^[3] In July, the game's active player base surged from 600 concurrent players to over 100,000 concurrent players, leading to 1047 Games having to resolve server issues by adding capacity and introducing queue times to handle the unexpected influx.

During the initial July 2021 beta period, the game became the number one most downloaded free game on the Xbox Games Store, the number one trending game in the PlayStation Store and the number one trending game on Steam.^[4]

Gameplay

Splitgate's gameplay has been described as a mixture of Halo and Portal. Teams of players compete against each other in compact arenas, utilizing a selection of weapons. Players are only able to hold two weapons at a time, with picked-up weapons replacing the standard options.

Each player is able to "shoot" two portals onto special surfaces, with both portals serving as entry and exit points. In addition to moving through the portals, players can shoot enemies through them. Players can move and shoot through any portal but can only see through portals created by their teammates.

Reception

Following the original 2019 release, the game received mostly above-average reviews, maintaining a 68 average score on Metacritic^[5] as of August 18th, 2021.

As of July 3rd, 2021, the game maintained a "Very Positive" (86 percent) rating on Steam^[6] with over 11,000 user reviews. As of August 18th, following the soft relaunch, the rating rose to "Very Positive" (91 percent) with more than 43,100 user reviews.

On August 3rd, 2021, YouTuber^[7] Cr1tiKaL posted a gameplay video of Splitgate, referring to it as the "best FPS game."

Search Interest

External References