Splitgate started its open beta in August 2021 and has been running on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox since then. In November, there was a surge of new players – reportedly thanks to a shooter that is actually competition: Halo Infinite.
What kind of shooter is this? Splitgate was released in Early Access on Steam in May 2019 and gained real momentum in August 2021. The shooter reached over 67,000 simultaneous players on Steam alone, and together with Xbox and PlayStation, it is said to have reached over 200,000. More than the servers could handle.
In Splitgate, you play in arenas at high speed, similar to classic Quake or Unreal Tournament. The twist is that you can create portals and jump wildly across the map.
The style is heavily reminiscent of the popular Halo series, and Splitgate has even been subtitled: “Halo meets Portal”. The game gained so much popularity in a short time, that the developers had to scrap the release date.
What’s the status of Splitgate? The hype around Splitgate on Steam has since cooled down, and on average, about 2,000 players are still active (via steamcharts.com). The reviews on the PC platform remain “very positive“.
However, the numbers on PlayStation are said to have increased since November 2021, as revealed by CEO Ian Proulx (via TheLoadout.com). And this is supposedly not a coincidence, as he suggests: The release of Halo Infinite is to blame for that.
“Halo Infinite and Splitgate help each other”
How does Halo Infinite help Splitgate? The latest installment of Halo is only available on PC and Xbox. Accordingly, PlayStation players who want to play an arena shooter are unable to join in.
However, since Halo and Splitgate are quite similar, PS gamers at least have an alternative. They seem to be taking advantage of it, as reflected in the player count according to the CEO.
By the way, a PS5 optimized version of Splitgate is also expected to be released in 2022 – likely thanks to the $100 million that suddenly came as a financial boost. However, no specific date has been disclosed yet. Either way, projects like Splitgate demonstrate that indie projects can do a lot right:
How does Splitgate help Halo Infinite? Since generally more people are interested in arena shooters, Splitgate is supposed to serve as an entry point into the genre. The CEO says:
I truly believe that Halo Infinite and Splitgate will help each other in the long run. There is so much noise and so many battle royales right now – and [these two games] are bringing people into the arena shooter genre. There are plenty of kids who have never played Quake or Unreal Tournament […] Bringing them in contact with that is good for the genre as a whole.
Ian Proulx on TheLoadout.com
However, the interest in Halo Infinite and Splitgate is certainly also due to the fact that other major shooter titles in 2021 were rather disappointing for many fans. For that reason, both games also appear in our list of alternatives:
Disappointed with CoD Vanguard and Battlefield 2042? Here are 4 shooters we recommend!
