1047 Games CEO Ian Proulx has apologised for his Summer Game Fest appearance that went viral last week. If you missed it, Ian appeared on stage during the show but, according to the internet, had the makings of everything wrong with the modern video game industry.
Ian took to the stage to promote his new game, Splitgate 2, where he ended up criticising the state of the shooter genre. He was wearing a MAGA-styled cap that read “Make FPS great again” and essentially claimed that his free-to-play, live service PvP shooter was better than the majority of FPS games in recent years.
The hat was especially a sore topic for the industry amid major riots and protests around immigration raids. Ian says he wasn’t making a political statement and that people should take his appearance at “face value”. However, days later, Ian Proulx has since decided to post an apology admitting the whole ordeal was a “marketing stunt” gone wrong.
Proulx says in a video that the studio “needed something to grab attention, and the honest truth is we tried to think of something, and this is what we came up with”. He continued;
“We did not intend for this to be taken in any political way whatsoever. And I’m not an idiot: obviously I knew there would be some level of controversy. But we really saw this as a meme that was stating our truth, which is we do want to improve this genre and we are disappointed with the state of the genre. The truth is I am sorry, and the reason I’m sorry is because of what this has done to the community… There’s division in the community, and for that I am truly sorry.
This is not the first time Proulx has been boasterous about Splitgate 2. Since its debut earlier last year, the CEO has seemingly believed that the game would be an instant hit. He claimed that Splitgate 2 was a game that would “last a decade or more” and that it was the “game of his dreams”. Given the success of the original game, this is unsterstandable.
MAGA hat aside, his apology video still delivers the same theme with Proulx saying that the “genre is in a bad state” and he “wants to improve the genre” and “make FPS games as amazing as possible”.
Keep in mind that Splitgate 2 is a live-service, free-to-play PvP shooter.
No excuses, I’m sorry. pic.twitter.com/4dgOxrSXUJ
— Splitgate 2 (@Splitgate) June 10, 2025
