Splitscreen Gaming Is a Culture, Not a Mode

SlappingOysters writes: Grab It discusses the loss of splitscreen gaming to the Halo series in this article that asks developer 343 Industries to re-evaluate its position on cutting the feature. The developer has cited "increased visual and gameplay fidelity" as the reasons for cutting the series' hallmark mode. In better news for couch co-op fans, the site does confirm that Gears of War 4 will have splitscreen gameplay when it releases in 2016.

Comments

a recent AVGN video talked about this.

[Anonymous Coward]

Mike and James had a play vid of the new Godzilla game on ps4, James is pretty much about old school games only and really has no clue about modern games. They wanted to play split screen 1 on 1 vs mode and....couldn't. To boot, they had to have a ps4 live account just to access the vs mode which was online only.

In some ways games really have taken a step backward, instead of kinects and moves to bring social gaming back...maybe they should bring simple things like 2/4 split screen back.

Re:a recent AVGN video talked about this.

[TWX]

I bascailly stopped gaming when so many titles became online-only. I enjoyed hunting down computer-controlled enemies to go through the level until I got to the exit door, and while I enjoyed multiplayer deathmatch, playing alone for awhile to learn the particulars of the game before coming up against experienced players made it a lot more fun to eventually play against them, as it's not fun to just be fragged and fragged and fragged.

Splitscreen's decline can be explained

[RogueyWon]

There are a few things behind the decline in split-screen gaming on consoles.

Demographics have changed a lot. Until the latter part of the PS2/Xbox cycle, console gaming (with a small handful of exceptions) meant getting a bunch of people into the same room at the same time. That was ok as far as it went; a huge chunk of the gaming demographic back then was the teenager and young-adult market, with ready availability of siblings or housemates to provide the players. Those players are still the most important purchasing demographic, but they're older now. Split-screen gaming for them is a "special occasions" thing now, while online gaming is there for them whenever they feel like it.

Gamers are also a lot more intolerant of poor framerates than was the case in the past. Split-screen gaming usually involves a big hit to framerate and many classic split-screen games (including the early Halo titles) made enormous compromises in this area. Ever since the Call of Duty series started making a big selling point out of its 60fps gaming, there's been a lot more focus on framerates. For those about to cry "graphical snobbery!" - the difference in responsiveness and feel between a console shooter running at a steady 60fps and one running at either a steady 30fps or, worse still, a variable framerate is huge. PC gamers might not appreciate this, since they're used to having a lot more control in this area. But one of the big reasons why the Call of Duty series made it so big on consoles (despite seeming tame and unambitious to PC gamers) is that it just feels so much more responsive than the competition. With split-screen shooters often having provided a sub-20fps experience, the market for them now is likely much diminished.

There's also the point that more multiplayer games these days make a big point out of persistent stats systems. Look at a modern online shooter and you will often find a bewildering array of level-up systems, perks, bounties and other meta-game components. Those are geared towards online players putting in dozens of hours, not to quick-blast couch-parties.

So basically, while there is a small but vocal community that desperately wants split-screen gaming, there are understandable business reasons that have led to it being sidelined and gradually eliminated.