Splitgate dev 1047 Games adds ex-Ubisoft, EA staff in key roles

1047 Games, creators of the sci-fi shooter Splitgate, announced a trio of new hires who'll take up director roles. The studio has brought on Vincenzo Spina, Dave Wilkinson, and Corey Andress. 

Andress will serve as the studio's director of player engagement. His arrival at 1047 is especially noteworthy since by the developer's own admission in 2022, retaining players for the long term was an issue with Splitgate. His resume includes leading franchises at 2K such as Borderlands, NBA 2K, and Civilization. 

All three of those franchises are known for having long lifecycles with their various installments. Andress' particular specialty relates to communities and influencers, both of which are vital for live-service games. 

Spina, the new art director, has previously worked at Square Enix Montreal and Ubisoft. The press release calls attention to his time at the latter developer, highlighting his work as the visual design director of Rainbow Six Extraction and Hyper Scape, plus director of presentation on Far Cry Primal. 

Like Spina, Wilkinson is another Ubisoft alum: he directed animation for Far Cry 5 and directed cinematic animation for its predecessor Far Cry 4, along with Assassin's Creed III and Child of Light. At 1047, he'll once again be an animation director. 

1047 wants to make Splitgate realize its full potential

Splitgate released in Early Access back in 2021, and received attention when its claim to fame was being a Halo-like arena shooter that allowed players to shoot and pass through colored portals similar to Valve's Portal. 

It later hit Version 1.0 in early September 2022. But the day that 1.0 version hit, 1047 announced it had already moved on to another game. That unannounced project will be set in the same universe as Splitgate proper, and is already said to be "well in production." 

At the time, 1047 founder Ian Proulx explained to Digital Trends the new project was came from a desire to have a long-term game. It's also being made to get away from the comparisons that brought it such interest in the first place.

Like the original Splitgate, this new project will be free-to-play. Thus far, the biggest change is that it'll be done in Unreal Engine 5 (like every other game these days), hence Wilkinson and Spina's hiring. 

The cards seem to be stacked in 1047's favor. But at the moment, the biggest hurdle the studio is facing is the struggle that live-service games are currently having at the moment, one that's affecting even the free-to-play games that have otherwise interesting hooks as a foundation.