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Split Screen Co-op Is Dying

Posted by Soulskill on from the just-like-lan-parties dept.

kube00 writes "Split-screen co-op and local multiplayer are becoming things of the past. What happened to cramming a bunch of gamers into a room with two TVs and doing a system link match in Halo? Where have the all-night GoldenEye matches gone? Like the arcades of gamers' youth, the local multiplayer and co-op bonding experience has been replaced with individual gamers and a network."

35 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. Damned shame by Nursie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Split-screen co-op is a sociable way to spend an evening with a mate or two (drop in a few beers too, of course).

    I was most upset when it wasn't included in Resistance 2, after Resistance 1 had it. Turned it from an awesome shared experience to taking turns and one of you being a bit bored.

    1. Re:Damned shame by devbox · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's even more sociable accepted way in Asia, where arcades and co-op arcade games still flourish. There's always lots of teenagers playing those games in malls and arcades.

      Actually gaming in general is more social in Asia. Even if you play on computer, you go play in a net cafe with your friends and theres always other people around and playing with you - instead of you playing alone in a dark basement.

    2. Re:Damned shame by slickepott · · Score: 2

      If I get this right. Have I ever seen ANY fighting game with split screen? Youtubed Marvel vs Capcom 3 for some in game footage too - and no split screen? Split screen - from the trustworthy Wikipedia: "In its most easily-understood form, a split screen for a two-player video game is an audiovisual output device (usually a standard television for video game consoles) where the display has been divided into two equally-sized areas so that the players can explore different areas simultaneously without being close to each other." So same screen multiplayer games probably aren't going anywhere.

    3. Re:Damned shame by Narishma · · Score: 3, Informative

      Go ahead and find me a fighting game that doesn't have split screen (lookin forward to Marvel vs. Capcom 3 BTW).

      Fighting games don't have split-screen, they have same-screen multiplayer.

      --
      Mada mada dane.
    4. Re:Damned shame by AltairDusk · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Did you ever play video games with friends when you were a kid? I remember playing Goldeneye with 3 friends split screen on a 15" TV and we managed just fine. Playing 2 way or 4 way split screen on the 46" LCD I have now would still beat playing one player on that tiny screen for each person playing.

      I suspect the real reason split screen is disappearing is that both the PS3 and the 360 have already been pushed to their hardware limits and the game devs are having difficulty making split screen run without killing the framerate or dropping down the graphics level.

    5. Re:Damned shame by DeadTOm · · Score: 2

      In the PC gaming arena, LAN parties are all but dead. A few still linger on around the country but they are dwindling. It's part of a growing trend in the US, we're slowly isolating ourselves. Not just from the rest of the world but also from each other. The gaming industry is just one example of that. It's very, very sad.

    6. Re:Damned shame by Bitcloud21 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I would argue that this is the exact reason that split-screen is still necessary because without split-screen, then the person must to be in a different building with their own system and copy of the game.

      It is nice to be able to still play with someone even when they cannot be right next to you, but there is no substitute to seeing your friends face right after you dominate them in some sweet split-screen.

      Removing split-screen removes part of the social aspect of games.

    7. Re:Damned shame by Rexdude · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No. David Wong said it best:

      The advantage that consoles have over, say, PCs, is that you can play from your comfy sofa. The reason the sofa is considered the pinnacle of furniture technology is because there's room for other people on it.

      Yet, here's Grand Theft Auto IV, boasting about its robust multiplayer, and if you think "multiplayer" means inviting the gang over to play, get drunk, laugh and high-five each other until the break of dawn, too bad. You can't do that. Want to play with friends, they must be kept at arm's length, faceless at the other end of a broadband connection. Grand Theft Auto IV multiplayer is a world without hugs.

      A little further down, the reason:

      Sorry, you know damned well that technical limitations aren't the reason everyone is dropping split screen. Every previous generation had it, in times with much less powerful systems and few widescreen TVs.
      You're dropping it because four players on a split screen are playing off one $60 copy of the game. Four players playing online need four copies ($240).

      --
      "..One hosts to look them up, one DNS to find them, and in the darkness BIND them."
    8. Re:Damned shame by ShakaUVM · · Score: 2

      >>You're dropping it because four players on a split screen are playing off one $60 copy of the game. Four players playing online need four copies ($240).

      At the $240 price point, it is zero players playing it.

      I primarily play co-op games these days with my friends, and I have noticed how little selection there is nowadays when I go into my local Gamestop. I had a bunch of friends over tonight for video games and pizza, and we tried to get a good 4 player game going. Played PS Move "Sports" (4 player mode involves 4 people taking turns in front of the TV), Time Crisis (four player mode involves people taking turns), then to the Kinect with Dance Central (requires you to take turns in front of the TV) and Kinect Adventures (two people can go at once, but at the risk of fatal injuries), and then finally back to the 90s-era-looking Wii, with lots of four-player-simultaneous games with Mario Kart, Wii Sports (tennis is still fun), and Mario Party (which isn't especially great, but whatever).

      It's really annoying how many games promise couch coop and then just lame out on it. There's no reason why the new Time Crisis couldn't support four players at once in its sentry mode - just lazy, I guess.

      Anyone out there know any good four player simultaneous games?

  2. Grown Ups. by Seumas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When you grow up, you find that you have less time for gaming. You find that some of your friends and colleagues stop gaming, because of life. Of those who still game, you have fragmentation among their preferred platforms and then fragmentation among the games they invest their time in. If you've managed to find one or two like-minded folk who happen to want to play the same game on the same platform, you have to deal with aligning everyone's schedules so that they can get together. Then, you get to lug some hardware around and rearrange furniture.

    It's far easier to just have a seat on the couch or office chair and make use of that thing called the "Internet".

    1. Re:Grown Ups. by Seumas · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You have the dynamics of the influence backwards. While I'm sure all game developers are eager to sell more copies of the games, I doubt anyone but the in-house platform guys give a damn about influence the sames of more controllers and battery packs.

      People have difference lives and expectations than ten and fifteen years ago. The average gamer is no longer kicking it in a college dorm room or wasting an after school evening with their buddies in their bedroom. There is more distance between gamers, more hectic lives, less interest in dealing with sharing screens (why would you spend money on a nice huge screen just so you can split it by two or four, again?). It's the same way a lot of people don't do LANs anymore (though, of course, some do).

      The thing that is actually disappointing, to me, is the lack of community server experiences. Especially where consoles are concerned. I'm used to years of playing one or two specific games on the PC at a small handful of servers (more than one of which I've owned and operated, myself at some point). You may not know everyone on the server. You may not befriend them. But you kind of have an idea of the atmosphere of the server and you do get to know certain personalities and have an enjoyable gaming experience.

      On the console, you just randomly connect with twelve random people selected out of the hundreds of thousands who are playing that game online right now and then you're connected with another twelve random people that you'll probably never *ever* see again, fifteen minutes later. And because it's not a community server, you don't have the community vibe. You don't have the "server for laid back adults" or "the server for hardcore loudmouths". You just have twelve random people every few minutes. And, of course, 90% of those people are someone's annoying fucking brat child screaming racist and homophobic comments into a mic or singing some god awful song into the mic like it's the fucking Apollo.

      I don't see much interest or any benefit for the majority of gamers in retaining "local split screen" type experiences, but I see a desperate need to find a way to handle this whole decentralized, vast, meaningless ocean of multi-player gaming that consoles keep ushering in with every passing year.

    2. Re:Grown Ups. by AlXtreme · · Score: 2

      I did this recently, and discovered that out of the 40 odd PS3 games on my shelf, only 2 supported local multiplayer of any kind (Little big planet and blur for reference)

      Came to the same conclusion a while back with my PS3 collection. Want local multiplayer? Dust off that Wii. Nintendo gets that playing together in the same room is half the fun.

      I occasionally buy new PS3 games hoping for one that nails local multiplayer, but even if they do support it it's only with a passing glance. Compare that with Mario kart / Mario party / Wii sports / Wii resort / Wii party where local multiplayer _is_ the game.

      --
      This sig is intentionally left blank
    3. Re:Grown Ups. by xouumalperxe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you've managed to find one or two like-minded folk who happen to want to play the same game on the same platform, you have to deal with aligning everyone's schedules so that they can get together. Then, you get to lug some hardware around and rearrange furniture.

      You got it completely wrong. If I own a console, a game, and two controllers, and the game supports split-screen (or, more generically, local multiplayer with just one screen -- most beat'em ups don't really split screen), we can play the game together. There's no "happen to want to play the same game on the same platform" here, it's a matter of "people are here, they feel like playing a game, these are the ones I have that work". And this is why the Wii got its reputation for "the console for people who have actual friends": if someone visits me and they enjoy games, Mario Kart, New Super Mario Bros, House of the Dead: Overkill, Super Smash Bros. and Wii Sports are all games we can just pick up and play (and those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head from my own collection, without going into the Guitar Hero or Raving Rabbids sort of games). While not exactly a "hardcore" gaming experience, being able to push the controller off my opponent's hand while I try to overtake them in Mario Kart is a much more satisfying social experience than calling out "owned" over Ventrilo :)

    4. Re:Grown Ups. by Hatta · · Score: 2

      When you grow up, you find that you have less time for gaming.

      8 to 5 is pretty much spoken for. But hey, there's no homework, no after school programs etc, to worry about. I find that I have as much time for games at 30 as I did at 15.

      You find that some of your friends and colleagues stop gaming, because of life.

      Is "life" here a euphemism for "kids"?

      If you've managed to find one or two like-minded folk who happen to want to play the same game on the same platform, you have to deal with aligning everyone's schedules so that they can get together.

      Just like every other activity adults engage in. Not sure what the point is here.

      Then, you get to lug some hardware around and rearrange furniture.

      Hello? We're talking about split screen multiplayer. One screen, one console, two controllers. Nobodys lugging anything around.

      It's far easier to just have a seat on the couch or office chair and make use of that thing called the "Internet".

      Still more fun to drink beer and talk shit in person. Even if I have to break out the N64 (or 2600 for that matter).

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    5. Re:Grown Ups. by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 2

      Of those who still game, you have fragmentation among their preferred platforms and then fragmentation among the games they invest their time in.

      Local co-op play fixes the system fragmentation, and most games' gameplay isn't prohibitively complex or unique.

      But I would rather play some game I am lukewarm about with friends than some game I care a lot about with those same people on the internet. Even if they are my friends in real life, I don't find it the same experience.

      But local play works when you have people over to socialize, and gaming is one activity.

      Then, you get to lug some hardware around and rearrange furniture.

      Only because it's so rare. Look, maybe you have one of those uber-gaming chairs in a cave. I have my system in front of my couch. You're right that split-screen coop makes no sense for hardcore gamers. But it does for everyone else. Just like NBA/NFL players probably don't play basketball/football against random friends, but a bunch of 45 year old out of shape guys can play a pickup game of basketball, football or soccer just fine. That doesn't mean there's no room for competitive players.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
  3. Re:What? by Seumas · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why, when I was a kid, young people socialized around burgers and malts at the local grease pit. And the burgers were a nickel. And we respected our elders.

  4. Split screen? by Endymion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You don't need to split the screen to play Contra!

    Proper co-op should be one screen.

    --
    Ce n'est pas une signature automatique.
    1. Re:Split screen? by Tharsman · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This. Who needs split screen to play Rock Band with friends? How about New Super Mario Bros?

      But some games, like Racing games and FPS, are really not viable without split screen, and I always hated that unavoidable fact.

      That said, I got to poke holes into TFA. From TFA:

      Games such as Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye, Halo 1 and 2, Mario Kart, Twisted Metal 2 were the meat and potatoes of co-op games.

      From the list they mentioned, the new Wii Goldeneye supports Split Screen.

      Donkey Kong Returns also supports 2 player coop, no split screen required.

      The latest halo game, Reach, also supports Split Screen.

      Mario Kart supports Split Screen.

      I have not seen a Twisted Metal game out in ages, and would love to see a new one, but last non-combat racer I played had at least 2 player split screen support.

      In the end, the article does not even list games that he hates to be missing Co-Op, it does go on to claim Arcades seem to be lacking co-op, but the only point it ends up having is that Bet-Em-Ups (the games he list) seem to be nowhere to be seen in the arcade room. These days Arcades are dominated by fighters, racing games (that in the arcade room have ALWAYS delivered multiplayer via networking and multi-booth setups) and gun games that tend to always support two player modes.

      I ponder if it was posted by a kid that was upset due to one specific shooter not supporting split screen, nothing new since I recal reviews of forgetable shooters in the PSX (that had me properly forget their names) complaining the lack of coop modes.

      Maybe he is upset about the rising number of story-driven games that don't force a second player on screen. Its hard to tell because he didnt bother to make his point, TFA is reduced to a cenile old man whining about "The Good Old Days"

  5. Do the math by Erbo · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Split-screen multiplayer: Requires 1 console, plus 1 copy of the game.

    Online multiplayer: Requires N consoles, plus N copies of the game, plus N online service subscription fees.

    Which scenario do you think the console and game manufacturers like better?

    --
    Be who you are...and be it in style!
  6. They were obsoleted by a more convenient tech ... by perpenso · · Score: 2

    They were obsoleted by a more convenient technology. Internet based multiplayer was not possible or practical at the time but today it is. In this era of immediate gratification it's too much effort to organize a bunch of friends and wait until you can all haul your gear over and set it all up. In may be more fun but the incremental amount of fun must not be worth it for most gamers.

  7. Not on the Wii it isn't by Zouden · · Score: 5, Informative

    Super Mario Bros Wii supports 4-player co-op. And it seems pretty stupid to ask "Where have the all-night GoldenEye matches gone?" when there's a new GoldenEye game for the Wii that supports 4-player split screen just like the original.

    --
    "A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
  8. Re:Online Not a Replacement for Split-Screen by Seumas · · Score: 2

    I think your situation is an edge case and they're developing for the masses -- not the five percent that might benefit from some particular functionality. The average gamer is something like 35 years old and I'm pretty sure most 35 year old males don't live with three or four roommates and have a lot of occasions or desire to have this kind of gaming experience.

    I'm not suggesting it's an invalid request, but I think it's one of those things where 95% of people bitch about a feature being removed that only 5% of them actually ever used. It's like when the PS3 Slim removed the ability to run Linux. How many people bitched about that? How many of those who bitched actually ever installed Linux on their PS3 or even intended to?

  9. Serial cable? by gatzke · · Score: 2

    What happened to serial cables to network two PCs to play Doom or Hexen? Kids today have no appreciation of technology...

  10. Wii by bcmm · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's easy: local gaming has mostly gone to the Wii, and you and I don't really play with the Wii.
    This flowchart is surprisingly true as well as being funny.

    --
    # cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i llama
    Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
  11. Our own N64 widescreen hardcore coop by stimpleton · · Score: 2

    It was 1997, and when Goldeneye for the N64 came out, I would leave work on a friday, drive 2 hours to a friends place who had just bought the game.

    For coop we taped a large piece of cardboard horizontally accross the middle screen, seperating the two views. One would sit on a beanbag under the card. One would sit on a tall recliner looking above the cardboard.

    Each player had a small radar indicating the opposing player. We cut a disk and taped over that.

    It was thrilling stuff. We might sleep that night. For singleplayer we would alternate, one being a spotter. Commentary between us would be constant. By midday Saturday, friends would arrive and it'd be splitscreen ladder matches. One guy was prone to accussing the other of cheating.

    It was tense stuff, and when you heard the others gasp or laugh, you knew you were about to get a lead enema from behind. Satuday night was beers and a DVD. Then more GE about 6am till I would leave at midday sunday. I look back at that period very fondly.

    --

    In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
  12. Perhaps because it's shitty? by dangitman · · Score: 2

    Split screen always seemed like and awful thing to me - trying to cram all this different action onto a reduced-resolution portion of the screen. It's the same reason the Picture-in-Picture feature of TV sets is hardly used by anyone. There are probably better ways to have social gaming without dividing a single screen up.

    --
    ... and then they built the supercollider.
  13. boardgaming by fsiefken · · Score: 2

    That's one of the reasons why I focus on boardgames instead of computergames, like reading a book compared to watching a movie on average it can stimulate the mind more as the game design is usually more intricate and it is more social! I can recommend playing Puerto Rico and Imperial 2030, also see: BoardGameGeek ranking.

  14. Makes sense by fleeped · · Score: 2

    Speaking as a games programmer for an AAA game that eventually dropped split-screen support: Can't say I love the fact, but it *kind of* makes sense from a performance standpoint. Consider the following: You have a big bad detailed world to explore. You naturally don't want to keep the areas that the player doesn't see in video memory. Well, if you have split screen, tough luck, you have to keep in memory at worst twice as much, which is pretty bad. Of course you should need half as much detail for each view, but you'd have to implement a proper streaming system for that (like MegaTexture). Long story short, split screen support nowadays, especially for highly detailed worlds, is not a trivial problem to solve if you want to avoid excess performance costs. And when everybody is connected online anyway, it makes sense (financially) to drop it.

  15. Re:Online Not a Replacement for Split-Screen by Fallus+Shempus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No, but there are plenty of 35 year olds who have kids that want to play (Lego Star Wars etc sell well enough, and even up to Halo).

    My eldest loves killing all the brutes while I'm still trying to figure out where they are... "It's OK Dad I'll let you kill the next one"

    Also there are some wives/girlfriends who sometimes play.

  16. Re:Can't split into 16 screens by Rhaban · · Score: 2

    around 10 years ago, I was in high school and played 4-players Goldeneye on a 12" tv. Each player had a 6" subscreen.

    Now that I have a job and enough money to be able to buy things, I have a 42" tv. Can't imagine why I wouldn't be able to play a 16 players split-screen game with a 10.5" subscreen for each player (except I would need lots of controllers and beers).

  17. You're not looking. by Spit · · Score: 3, Informative

    The most popular titles today all have excellent couch co-op and multi features. Examples:

    Halo Reach
    CoD Black Ops
    SMB Wii
    SM Cart
    Gears of War series

    There are also countless local multi games available on services like Xbox Live Arcade and PSN..

    --
    POKE 36879,8
  18. Re:Online Not a Replacement for Split-Screen by ArchGriffin · · Score: 2

    Although my wife will rarely play and if she does it is the Wii, my son is far more interested in being able to play games with me then on his own, and we do not let him play anything online without one of us around and normally if it is online it is with me in something split screen or single screen multiplayer.

    The new Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, does not have local multiplayer, yet all the previous ones had, and it was made by the same team that did the Burnout series, which all also had local multiplayer. I found this quite out of style for them, and instead of messing with it, I got NHL 11, so it can drive people away from sales.

    COD MW2, requires 2 gamer tags for two people to go online, while COD BO allows a guest to play split screen. COD WaW did not allow for more than 2 players in their Zombie sub-game, COD BO allows for 4 players.

    I do see a struggle between the modes of multiplayer, not being a game developer I have no idea what this is like on their end, but to me it seems a small thing that should always stay in tack as not everyone can or wants to play online.

  19. Re:What? by Unkyjar · · Score: 3, Funny

    Let's see... that was the 1950's when you were a kid...so that makes you 65 years old or more? Get off my lawn grandpa, we put you in a nursing home for a reason.

  20. Re:Online Not a Replacement for Split-Screen by Cwix · · Score: 2

    I agree with you 100% percent. I grew up with two brothers, playing split screen games. I also remember playing Halo in a room with 3 xboxs, three TVs, and 10 people playing the game. It was awesome.

    Nowadays, I have to own a console, tv, and copy of the game for everyone who wants to play. Its frigging ridiculous. Its like the game manufacturers took it away thinking, they will find plenty of people online to play with. Well Id rather play with my friends and family together. I dont want to play against the 12 year old on the other end.

    --
    You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
  21. Think outside "our" box... by BigSes · · Score: 2

    One moment here, maybe the industry is right. Think of it like this, most of us are offended or shocked by this beginning to occur more and more often, but "we" aren't the norm. We're essentially a community of gamers and nerds, who largely grew up the same. Most of us loved a Goldeneye all nighter, or lining up tokens to have the next crack at Mortal Kombat, but that's our youth and what our generation loves. If you were 13 then and were really in to it, think about today's 13 year olds. EVERYTHING is a social network type experience. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, XBL, PSN, WOW, and on and on.

    I'm not saying I like it, damn, I hate it. My friends and I still setup multiple PS3s and tvs just to play MW2 and get that old feel. However, video games are big business, and these companies have market strategy departments funded by more money than some small countries have in GDP. They are going to follow modern trends, and I hate to say it, but that's what's hot. Sure, we say it was better in our day, but that argument has been going on about all entertainment mediums, such as music, since the first instrument was ever played. I'm sure my grandfather would take hoop and stick or lawn darts over Super Mario Brothers. Its just a companies selling to a well thought out target market. As much as we all loved it, our time is likely passing. The world just won't get off our collective lawn!