Portal shooter 'Splitgate' launches Season 0, a bigger, better beta

Splitgate, an FPS that combines the best of classic Quake multiplayer and Portal, is an unlikely shooter success story. It reached an astounding 10 million downloads during its open beta last month, when it made its way to consoles and unveiled cross-platform play. And to celebrate that success, today developer 1047 Games launched its next beta phase: Season 0.

"In the span of a month, our servers went from supporting 4,000 players at once to 175,000 players!" Splitgate creator and 1047 Games CEO Ian Proulx wrote on the PlayStation blog. "All in all, our servers had some growing pains, so we had to implement short-term solutions to prevent back-end crashes."

Given the influx of new users, Proulx says he chose to delay the game's official launch and extend the beta phase. Existing players can expect a slew of new content in Season 0, including Karman Station, a new map, as well as a new Infection gameplay mode. There's also a Season 0 Battle Pass and plenty of new gear to pick up. They have to support a free-to-play game somehow, right?

After spending more than 10 hours in the previous Splitgate beta, it's easy to see why the game has caught on so quickly. It combines solid shooter mechanics with something entirely new: The ability to place portals around the map, which you can use to teleport or take out enemies. If anything, it's a welcome respite from the flood of Battle Royale titles on the market.

While Splitgate doesn't have an official launch date yet, the beta is pretty stable in my experience. Proulx says 1047 Games is also work on a map editor, as well as additional maps, weapons and other items in the future.