Black Rock Studio, an internal Disney development team based in Brighton, designed Split/Second around a game-show premise in which contestants raced for money and fame in a high-production televised event. The studio's concept separated the game from conventional racing titles by making the track environment itself an adversarial element. Buildings could buckle, highways collapse, and dam walls breach at a player's command, creating hazards that neither traditional racing nor fighting games had attempted at this scale. Split/Second was the final game Black Rock Studio completed before Disney closed the studio in 2011.
Drivers built a three-segment power play meter throughout each race by performing jumps, mid-air overtakes, precision drifting, and slipstream drafting behind opponents. As segments filled, players could activate corresponding events positioned at fixed trigger zones across the track. Level 1 events, available when one or two segments were filled, created targeted obstacles and consumed one segment. Level 2 events, requiring a full meter, triggered more dramatic alterations — including helicopter strikes, exploding tankers, and temporary shortcuts — some of which permanently restructured a section of the course for the remainder of the race.
The HUD was deliberately minimal. Black Rock removed the speedometer and track map on the grounds that dynamic track changes rendered the latter meaningless. Only lap count, race position, and the power play meter remained visible, positioned close to the player's car to preserve sightlines into the environment.
The game featured 17 standard tracks, set primarily within and around a full-scale city complex shown under construction during the tutorial. Two additional tracks were available as downloadable content, both set in a quarry environment. An online multiplayer mode accommodated up to 8 players, and a 2-player split-screen offline mode was included.
Several paid and free DLC packs extended the game after launch. The "High Octane Supercar" pack in August 2010 added three vehicles — the Cobretti Severus, Ryback Vulcan, and Hanzo Katana. A "Survival at the Rock" pack in October added a new Survival mode track at Minepit Park and a Survival Race multiplayer variant. The "Deadline" pack the same month introduced three more cars and a Deadline mode, a timed variant of the existing Detonator event type where trackside pickups could pause the countdown. The "Quarry Onslaught" pack in November added the Quarry track and an Onslaught mode featuring helicopter missile waves. Free additions included the Elite Vehicle Livery and Ryback Cyclone Special car. A complete "Ultimate Edition" bundled all paid content and the base game for the European market.
The PlayStation Portable port, developed by Sumo Digital and released 17 November 2010, added an exclusive composite track called The Docks combining segments from Dry Docks, Ferry Wharf, and Port Bridge into a single lap. New gameplay modes were introduced offering drift-scoring and other variants. Vehicle physics were adjusted for portable play, and track design and car statistics were modified. The PSP version supported ad hoc multiplayer for up to four players.
Split/Second received generally favorable critical reviews across its main platforms. Metacritic classified the Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 versions as receiving favorable assessments, while the PSP port drew more mixed responses. At the 14th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated the game for Racing Game of the Year. Commercial results were poor relative to its review scores: the game sold only 86,000 copies in the United States within its first 12 days of release.
The concluding cutscene of Episode 12 hinted at a continuation, showing power plays triggered across the city by unknown actors and a panicked production voice claiming the group "were taken off air in '82," followed by the text "To be continued." A sequel was confirmed to be in development when an anonymous source speaking to Eurogamer in May 2011 confirmed workforce reductions at Black Rock Studio. The sequel was cancelled in December 2010, however, following Disney's restructuring under new management and a change in publishing strategy. The studio closed in 2011.
The Steam release of Split/Second in late 2014 as part of Disney Interactive's digital catalogue removed online multiplayer matchmaking support, though LAN play via virtual private network services remained functional. The game is remembered as an inventive take on environmental racing that has not been directly revisited.