343 Explains Why Halo 5 Won't Have Split-Screen

[RicoADF]

tldr: we couldn't get the game running at a solid framerate with all of the graphics so we said screw it.

Precisely what I was going to say, they scarified game play for graphics because the hardware couldn't handle it.
Piss off 343, I won't be buying Halo 5 thanks to your stupid choice and the XBO may never enter my home due to it too, good work idiots.

 

[Dango]

In other words, out publisher would rather put their money into focus-grouped mechanics and making our game parade Xbone's shiny new ass than giving us time and money to make a key feature of the series work.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Sorry 343, but a truly next gen Halo experience includes split-screen. Nice try guys and gals. As for the Galaxy-spanning story and the epic scale and scope of the game...I recall hearing the same thing when Halo 2 was in development. Granted, that wasn't 343 but still...can't wait to see how this turns out in however long it'll take for this thing to launch.

 

[RicoADF]

Cool, sounds good to me. Even back in the day I refused to play single player co-op. I hated the hit the graphics took so my brother and I both bought Xbox's and loved system link co-op. Honestly I have to think that anyone who says this is a big deal is just looking for stuff to nitpick. Who was actually going to use this?

I do, it's the only way I play Halo games and why I won't be playing Halo 5. Just because you play a certain way does not mean others didn't enjoy it the other way.

 

[Chefsbrian]

Some of the arguments about "Just tell us the hardware is shit" don't really come from the realm of possibility. 343 is a microsoft studio, and they'd never, ever admit that the xbone was anything other than pure platinum, as opposed to spray painted shit.

My interest in Halo 5 is really starting to wane, which is a bit of a blow since I've been telling myself for the last couple years "Yea I'll buy an Xbone for the new Halo". I do genuinely wonder how long these consoles will be able to handle themselves, considering the rate that PC hardware is shooting past them.

 

[Jingle Fett]

Today it's co-op. Who's to say tomorrow it won't be single player entirely?
After all, that's what the cool kids are doing these days (Titanfall, Battlefront). Who needs single player when most people don't even play all of it? Why not put all the resources into making a better multiplayer?
Or maybe they remove some other "unnecessary" feature that not enough people want.

It always starts innocently enough...

 

[NerAnima]

Cool, sounds good to me. Even back in the day I refused to play single player co-op. I hated the hit the graphics took so my brother and I both bought Xbox's and loved system link co-op. Honestly I have to think that anyone who says this is a big deal is just looking for stuff to nitpick. Who was actually going to use this?

I do, it's the only way I play Halo games and why I won't be playing Halo 5.

Same here, it's the only way I actually play Halo, and probably will be the reason I don't even consider getting Halo 5, because if I can't play through the campaign with my family, then what's the bloody point?

Further, I don't get why they can't have it in there, even after reading through that slog. What is so taxing about this game that it can't accomplish what Halo 1-4 have done and have local co-op? Someone explain, because this is, as one great poster before me put it, is unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable.

 

[Tsaba]

343-Explains-Why-I-Won't-Buy-Halo-5

yep, their lies and petty BS sums up this one true answer to Halos Simple riddle of steel.

 

[KenAri]

What a shame. I'd have hoped that the 100% negative response from the community would've change their minds, but apparently they're determined to kill the franchise. I'm pretty sure a moderate portion of their sales will come from people that aren't aware the splitscreen was removed.

I had pretty high hopes for 343. They seemed pretty sincere about handling a much-beloved franchise, and the music they conducted was phenomenal. Ah well.

 

[Poetic Nova]

They lost me already when they showed ironsights in pre-release footage.
Atleast sprinting made some sort of sence in 4.

 

[FoolKiller]

Coming from a technical background, the amount of backlash decisions like this get always baffles me. Mostly as the outrage tends to be morally based, when it seems to me to be a simple technical problem. There's only so much they can do with the crappy tech that is the xbone, and something had to give. Choosing split-screen makes sense if there's a small enough user base for it compared to cutting something else.

Of course, what am I saying. Raaagggeee ebul corporations only care about money.

Hardly... they could cut the overly pretty visual and let us play split screen. I think the problem is that their "vision" for the future includes every person playing the games. My friend and I are playing through all of the games together again on Xbox 1, but they don't have Xbox 1's yet and don't want one. If we can't continue to play together I don't really care about the game then.

A large number of gamers desperately are looking for couch coop games. Halo has been one of those staples for nearly 15 years. So we're upset when things they trained us to expect from the franchise are missing.

 

[Darkmantle]

Hey. 343, how is it that "next gen experience" means stripping all the fucking features! I thought I'd get more for my money not less, and split screen is part of the experience, fuck you 343.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Alright, I do think there some serious misunderstanding about this. But the thing is, for some weird reason, this press release is not giving us the actual truth of the matter.

The truth is, they went into this thinking the XOne could handle 60 FPS with full 4 player split-screen even. And then (rather stupidly I might add) they began to build the engine with this assumption. Which means, they linked the game FPS with EVERYTHING in the engine. It now HAS TO BE 60 FPS ALL THE TIME or else the game will begin to glitch out something terrible. And in order to fix it, they'd need to totally rewrite the whole engine which is, of course, not doable at all. So they gotta play the ball where it sits.

It was a bad decision but something they can't do a single thing about now.

 

[Kohen Keesing]

Cool, sounds good to me. Even back in the day I refused to play single player co-op. I hated the hit the graphics took so my brother and I both bought Xbox's and loved system link co-op. Honestly I have to think that anyone who says this is a big deal is just looking for stuff to nitpick. Who was actually going to use this?

*Puts hand up*
Couch Co-Op is literally the only reason I got into Halo. Back when my brother and I could finally afford a console, the original Xbox and Halo:CE were the standard for it. In fact I'd say that most of console gaming's history goes back to couch co-op, what with Mario kart/Party, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and other sport franchise games on a wide selection of platforms, FORZA, Gran Turismo, etc.

Couch Co-op really is a huge niche of gaming, which is why it's seen a happy resurgence on steam with titles like Crawl and Nuclear Throne. Not everyone can actually afford to have two of the same console AND the same game in their house (current-gen consoles are still running $800-$1000 for the console/1 game/1 controller package here). I remember being so fucking keen to play Wipeout on PS1 with my friend but then discovered we could only do that with a system link, which pretty much resulted in that game not leaving the case again.

What 343 have done here is kinda like if WB decided to remove, say, Joker from their Batman franchise films. Sure, not everyone's gonna be pissed off by that, maybe not even most people, but a very, VERY large slice of the pie will drop off completely, because the part they actually enjoyed is gone.

 

[Outcast107]

Oh look, all the people who said they weren't going to buy xbox, are still not going to buy xbox. SHOCKER!

 

[AJ_Lethal]

"what are LODs?"
"what is mipmapping?"
"what are framerate caps?"

-343 Industries

 

[Thyunda]

I love how they say it'll take away from other areas of the game.

No, it won't. You're a grown-up company. Push back the release date. Put the money and work in that the game requires. Don't start cutting shit and then shrugging and saying "It was either we cut the splitscreen or the voice-acting and you don't really want a silent game, do you?"
Like no, fuck you 343. You're setting the bloody stage. Don't throw up your hands and claim you were dealt from a shitty deck. You not only dealt yourselves the cards, but you printed the damn things too. It's not our fault you're either incompetent or deliberately trying to force us to buy more consoles. It's not like you're owned by Microsoft or nothing.
Oh. Hang on.

 

[Torchiest]

We live in a Post "Ship it out and patch the bugs out later", Batman-Arkham-Knight Climate, where we as gamers rather have it functional and working right out of the box than broken now and sitting with a 60 dollar virtual space block to be fixed later. And we are willing to wait the months to have it ready. Hell, a lot of us wait that long to have a playable experience anyway.

It is the publishers who put these deadlines that they need to be shipped now, now, now.

QFT. You can say, okay, yeah, they're beholden to stockholders and have to get their quarterly numbers looking good, but it seems like we've got to get to a point where people refuse to pre-order or day one purchase games sight unseen. That's the only way to break this ridiculous cycle. Don't believe the hype.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Only 30FPS and Splitscreen? People complain, make petitions and complain about the hardware.

60FPS but no Splitscreen? People complain, make petitions and complain about the hardware.

Or they could've done what Nintendo did with Mario Kart 8, and run the game at 60fps in single player and 30fps in splitscreen. Pretty much nobody would've complained about this.

P.S. Thanks

Unless I'm mistaken that's not how Mario Kart 8 works.

Its 60 fps on both splitscreen and single player, however the graphics are heavily downgraded in splitscreen to keep that 60 fps.

60fps in single and split screen two player, once you hit 3/4 players, it is 30fps. That's where the confusion comes from, but it is a constantly stable 30fps which means you get used to it and it's worth putting up with to play with friends like that. Done it heaps