4-Player Splitscreen

[TheZooblord]

Okay, I know this probably gets brought up a lot.

But really.

WHAT, ON EARTH, HAS HAPPENED TO FOUR PLAYERS BEING ABLE TO SIT DOWN ON A COUCH TOGETHER TO PLAY A VIDEO GAME D:

It's a very simple formula. One console, one couch, one TV, four screens. Four happy friends.

Why is it that nowadays every single game only goes as far as 2-player splitscreen.

Even if they do have four-player splitscreen, such as Call of Duty, it is typically only for local deathmatches, and not for a co-op campaign or online multiplayer.

The last game I played that had four-player splitscreen online co-op was HALO 3. An XBox 360 launch title. Castle Crashers had offline 4-person Splitscreen too, but XBLA doesn't count.

I mean... why is it that now everything is two-player splitscreen, with four players if you manage to get two XBoxes system-linked?

Of course it's all due to marketing...

But don't some of the rest of you miss sitting around a couch with four friends all playing together, too?

And jeebus lol. Some games, such as Left 4 Dead and Borderlands, are specifically keyed to playing together with three other people. Cue running home excitedly with the game only to realize that half the room can't play it together with you.

I'm going back to Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

I don't recall being happy watching four small screens...

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[Spazticated]

"You're screen whoring!" "Stop screen whoring!" "Watch your own damn screen!"

These are complaints that get thrown around a lot when ever my friends and I are split screening something.

Also, there's more money to be made in selling your other 3 friends a game and/or console and/or a subscription ala xboxlive.

 

[snow]

-snip-

I'm a bit annoyed by that as well... I hate it even more when a game can support online play but there's no multiplayer outside of being connected to people online...

Like AvP's 4 player co-op survivor thing... I was really looking forward to playing that with my brother... But alas, one of us has to watch while the other plays..

Online play has ruined the 2-4 player gameplay... I really miss the days of having a group of friends over to play games.. Now it's either I have 1 friend over who will either play 2 player or we take turns.. Or have the group over and sit there looking like a fool while half the group remains bored...

 

[TheZooblord]

Thanks for the welcome

And yeah, I suppose the screens were less of a problem when games had less going on on each screen...

Still, there's always four-players-on-the-same-screen. Which leads to its own problems (jerk friends running to either side of the screen taking the camera with them lol) but I dunno. My friends and I just prefer to be in the same room when playing games together, so if there are ever more than two of us... It's painful

 

[knhirt]

I still have a good time playing Time Splitters: Future perfect with a couple of buddies every now and then.

As I haven't been following the latest generation of consoles, I didn't realize that such split-screen play had been abolished, but it's a shame.

 

[Irridium]

1 little problem, Halo 3 wasn't a launch title for the 360.

OT: It saddens me that 4 player split screen is basically gone...

I remember many fun times with my friends on Goldeneye for the N64 and the Timesplitters games.
Sure the screens were tiny, but we didn't give a fuck, we were having fun!

 

[Neon Jackal]

Anyone who doesn't like 4-player splitscreen obviously doesn't have any friends. Some of my finest memories are of a night of 4-player splitscreen gaming. A small portion of the screen is a small price to pay for having a good time with mates.

 

[Souplex]

Because, developers only sell one copy if you play splitscreen. Also, they generally don't have peak graphics when multiple people are playing at once.

 

[Generator]

Yeah, I miss it too. 4-player splitscreen, or any splitscreen for that matter, is dying in games at an alarming rate, and I really do want it back. Unfortunately, there's a much larger market in making online-only games, and the gamers of today don't seem to mind so much, so developers have no reason to go back to making this play type in game. This is actually the reason that I'm almost always a single-player type of guy nowadays.

 

[Rewdalf]

Funny how 4 player split screen existed back when most TVs were the size of a microwave...
I'd be happy to have four (maybe even six) little screens on my big screen TV, because guess what, I HAVE GOOD EYESIGHT!

 

[Neon Jackal]

People think that getting rid of splitscreen will sell more games, There were plenty of games I didn't buy because they didn't/don't have 4 player splitscreen and plenty that I went halves/quarters with mates just to play four players.

 

[TelHybrid]

Hmm makes it kinda pointless implementing support for 4 controllers on consoles. :S

 

[Korten12]

Modnation racers will have 4-player local online.

 

[Daveman]

THIS IS WHY TIMESPLITTERS WAS INFINITELY BETTER THAN HALO.

Excessive use of caps ftw (also obviously it's just my opinion, douches)

But yes, I loved a bit of 4-way (oy oy!) with all my friends. I used to do it every birthday and at every possible get together. It has led to the only games me and my friends can play together being Rockband and SSBB.

 

[Mad World]

Great point; I miss it.

I think that having multiple screens is taxing on the console, so that may be a possible reason why it's not so popular.

Ever notice how Perfect Dark's FPS (for the Nintendo 64) goes way down on even two-player splitscreen?

For the record, I do realize that modern consoles are considerably more powerful than the Nintendo 64, but I believe that splitscreen still affects the FPS in a negative way - even if it's not as noticeable.

 

[Neon Jackal]

THIS IS WHY TIMESPLITTERS WAS INFINITELY BETTER THAN HALO.

Excessive use of caps ftw (also obviously it's just my opinion, douches)

But yes, I loved a bit of 4-way (oy oy!) with all my friends. I used to do it every birthday and at every possible get together. It has led to the only games me and my friends can play together being Rockband and SSBB.

While I'll agree Timesplitters is infinitely cooler than Halo, you do realise Halo has 4 player splitscreen.

 

[TheZooblord]

1 little problem, Halo 3 wasn't a launch title for the 360.

Right. I knew something was off with my statement lol