The release of the free multiplayer shooter was planned for 27 July 2021. But due to its unexpected popularity, it has now been spontaneously postponed.
Sudden success can also have disadvantages. This is currently especially noticeable with the free multiplayer shooter Splitgate. The game had to be spontaneously postponed due to too many players. Actually, the full release of the “portal-halo” was planned for 27 July 2021. But now the game will not be released until August.
The current server structure is simply not designed for the large number of players. An official press release states:
“Our team has been completely blown away by the incredible response from the Splitgate community. The steep and sudden rush of players to our servers brings with it a myriad of technical issues that we have to address. We have been working hard to provide a quality gaming experience and our biggest challenge is simply having enough space for the whole community. ”
Although the finished release is not happening today after all, players are not going completely empty-handed. Currently, the beta servers are down while a major update is being installed. It already contains some innovations that were intended for the final release. Among them are three new maps.
If you want to get an idea of Splitgate, take a look at the gameplay trailer:
Does the shift provide relief?
So the rush of players has taken the developers quite by surprise. This was already evident a few days ago. Because the mass of people in this case has had an immense impact on the working lives of the developers. CEO Iain Proulx spoke of immense time pressure and that some developers would only get about two hours of sleep.
The spontaneous postponement of Splitgate may annoy some gamers. But hopefully it will give the developers some peace of mind. Crunch is a difficult issue in the games industry.
The sudden rush is thanks to Splitgate’s beta phase on consoles, which has been running since 13 July. Before that, the shooter had been in Early Access on PC since 2019. But it was only with the console beta that the current player numbers on Steam shot towards the stratosphere. The game offers cross-play between all platforms.
$10 million for bigger servers
In addition to the postponement, the developers also announced another piece of news. For apparently they have sought funding to make the new server structure possible in the first place. The venture capital company Human Capital has invested 10 million dollars, which 1047 Games is putting into the expansion of its servers.
On this, CEO Proulx says in the press release:
“We are thrilled to have Human Capital lead this round of funding. In addition to providing the capital needed to improve server size and stability, they are helping them assemble a construction team we need to create the best game possible. ”
The studio did not specify what the exact contractual terms are. So it’s impossible to estimate how many company shares Human Capital received in return, and thus how valuable the developer studio is now valued after its rapid success.
