The developer of Splitgate 2 has issued an apology for his comments about the FPS genre during Summer Game Fest. The FPS genre is one that has been in a frustrating spot for fans for many years now. Once reliable franchises like Halo and Battlefield have become unreliable and shells of themselves. Halo has struggled to be the Xbox juggernaut that broke entertainment records for a decade now. Battlefield looks like it may be on the verge of a promising comeback, but that’s a result of multiple games that failed to impress fans thanks to buggy launches and poor direction. Call of Duty has also been hurt by hackers, SBMM complaints, and much more.
As a result, fans are looking for something new and fresh. There have been some really great unique contenders like The Finals in recent years, but that has a very specific kind of gameplay that won’t appeal to everyone. XDefiant tried to take a run at Call of Duty’s throne but was quickly thwarted and shut down not long after its launch, which was an unfortunate ending to Ubisoft’s new FPS. As a result, there’s room for some good competition in the FPS arena shooter space and Splitgate 2 is aiming to conquer it.
At Summer Game Fest, Splitgate 2 creative director and 1047 Games CEO Ian Proulx took to the stage to announce a new battle royale mode for the game following the game’s beta. He noted that he was tired of playing the same Call of Duty game every year, felt let down by Halo, and longed for Titanfall 3, demonstrating his passion for the genre. He did all of this while wearing a hat that read “Make FPS Great Again”, which is an obvious parody on Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, which is contentious for a variety of reasons. This led to some social media backlash toward Splitgate 2 with some calling the hat tone deaf and others mocking the fact that Proulx made this big statement before announcing yet another FPS battle royale.
The developer has spent the last few days online respond to criticism over things like in-game monetization, which has led to quick and meaningful change in Splitgate 2, but also drew more controversy after responding to a Call of Duty developer who was mocking the game. Now, Proulx has released a video apologizing for how tense things have gotten and clarified that his hat was not meant to be a political statement. He noted that he wants to foster a strong community and hates the division that he has created.
“Coming out of beta, we needed something to grab attention and the honest truth is, we tried to think of something and this is what we came up with,” said Proulx. “We did not intend for this to be taken in any political way whatsoever and I am not an idiot. I knew there would be some level of controversy, but we really saw this as a meme that was kind of stating our truth which is that we do want to improve this genre. We are disappointed with the state of the genre. We took it as a meme that we thought would not be received nearly as negatively as it was.
So, I want to apologize and genuinely, you don’t have to believe me, but the truth is I am sorry. The reason I’m sorry is because of what this has done to the community. The most important thing is I want to have an amazing community. It’s the reason I built 1047, it’s the reason I love my job.”
You can view the rest of his statement below.
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