‘We plan to support 2-player split screen play for both MP and Campaign co-op.’ - Josh Holmes (Twitter) 04/01/15
‘Many of our ambitious goals for Halo 5 would be compromised in a split-screen setting and the time spent optimizing and addressing split-screen-specific issues would take focus from building other parts of the game.’ - Josh Holmes (Forum Blog)
I know split screen is not going to make it into Halo 5 Guardians but from the tweet in January, I took that it definitely was and nevertheless, disappointed that it isn’t. The word ‘support’ is the primary word that stood out in the sentence and that means that would be a focus at 343i. However, they confirmed that split screen wasn’t their primary focus and that they were never building around it in the first place. I interpreted this as ‘we care more for the aesthetic look of the game’. As you can see above, in 6 months a very important feature of console gaming was removed by 343i and this took a blow to the hype of the game by many fans around the world. This reminds me of how successful 343i have been at butchering hype, and that Bethesda may need to hire them to suppress the fanboys’ hype of The Elder Scrolls VI when it is announced at E3 next year.
My point is, let it be with the PR guys.
Losing split screen sucks. The amount of hours of split screen I’ve played this week alone is insane. However, if it means Halo 5 can have the best campaign yet, I’ll accept it.
Bungie planned to have Invasion in Halo 2. Halo 3’s Guardian map was planned to be used instead for part of a campaign level. The MCC was originally meant to have the entire Halo 2 mapset remade for multiplayer instead of just six.
Game development basically goes: “Okay, here’s what we want to do.” Then development goes to “Here’s want we think we can do.” Then it becomes “Here’s what we can do.”
Look at it this way: Would you rather that they include a split-screen experience that’s broken and doesn’t work well - which they could have done - or just accept it wasn’t going to pan out and spend those resources on other parts of the game? No one wants to have to drop content and features but the devs ultimately only have so much time and money, not to mention hardware restrictions.
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> The main word in that tweet was “plan” so it was never certain if it would be or not.
I think you may have missed my point. The fact that 343i didn’t actually plan to support split screen by not building the aesthetics to run at a stable framerate means that Josh’s wording was misleading. This built up unnecessary hype and is why announcements like those should be confirmed by blog posts.
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> > 2533274888579326;2:
> > The main word in that tweet was “plan” so it was never certain if it would be or not.
>
>
> I think you may have missed my point. The fact that 343i didn’t actually plan to support split screen by not building the aesthetics to run at a stable framerate means that Josh’s wording was misleading. This built up unnecessary hype and is why announcements like those should be confirmed by blog posts.
Its not just the aesthetics. Its the actual world we play in that would make split screen too demanding on the xbone
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> > 2533274888579326;2:
> > The main word in that tweet was “plan” so it was never certain if it would be or not.
>
>
> I think you may have missed my point. The fact that 343i didn’t actually plan to support split screen by not building the aesthetics to run at a stable framerate means that Josh’s wording was misleading. This built up unnecessary hype and is why announcements like those should be confirmed by blog posts.
But they did plan to support it. When they were building the game they thought that they could make it work, thus they planned to make it work and include their vision for the campaign.
Later in development, when these features and such are beginning to be finished and optimized, they found that sacrifices would have to be made. They believed too much would be sacrificed.
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> > 2533274888579326;2:
> > The main word in that tweet was “plan” so it was never certain if it would be or not.
>
>
> I think you may have missed my point. The fact that 343i didn’t actually plan to support split screen by not building the aesthetics to run at a stable framerate means that Josh’s wording was misleading. This built up unnecessary hype and is why announcements like those should be confirmed by blog posts.
They likely assumed the xbox one would be able to run co-op at 60fps with their other graphical goals. They still planned to support it, but complications arose.
They clearly discovered the issue afterward, and had to make a call. They have told us of said call.
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> > 2533274888579326;2:
> > The main word in that tweet was “plan” so it was never certain if it would be or not.
>
>
> I think you may have missed my point. The fact that 343i didn’t actually plan to support split screen by not building the aesthetics to run at a stable framerate means that Josh’s wording was misleading. This built up unnecessary hype and is why announcements like those should be confirmed by blog posts.
I dont see how they were misleading. They said what they planned to do. It didn’t work out and they told us that.
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> > 2533274908722615;9:
> > > 2533274888579326;2:
> > > The main word in that tweet was “plan” so it was never certain if it would be or not.
> >
> >
> > I think you may have missed my point. The fact that 343i didn’t actually plan to support split screen by not building the aesthetics to run at a stable framerate means that Josh’s wording was misleading. This built up unnecessary hype and is why announcements like those should be confirmed by blog posts.
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> I dont see how they were misleading. They said what they planned to do. It didn’t work out and they told us that.
They planned to support split screen until it didn’t work, its as simple as that
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> 343i promised us on stage, MCC dedicated servers too.
They promised 1080p and 60fps, not splitscreen. If splitscreen is getting in the way of that, then they cut it. Imagine the backlash if they didn’t reach that technical promise. Might even be more than splitscreen, as it’ll be coming from the general console war as well.
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> > 2533274791734613;16:
> > 343i promised us on stage, MCC dedicated servers too.
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> They promised 1080p and 60fps, not splitscreen. If splitscreen is getting in the way of that, then they cut it. Imagine the backlash if they didn’t reach that technical promise. Might even be more than splitscreen, as it’ll be coming from the general console war as well.
Really don’t understand your problem OP… if anything this shows that they really wanted it to work but couldn’t in the end.
I believed them 100% when they said that it wasn’t an easy decision, they know that a lot of people still care about it.
There’s nothing misleading in what you quoted.
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> > 2533274791734613;16:
> > 343i promised us on stage, MCC dedicated servers too.
>
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> They promised 1080p and 60fps, not splitscreen. If splitscreen is getting in the way of that, then they cut it. Imagine the backlash if they didn’t reach that technical promise. Might even be more than splitscreen, as it’ll be coming from the general console war as well.
They’ve never promised anything. They advertised 60 fps but NEVER EVER 1080p.
And I don’t think they care about console war that much. They’re trying their best to release the best product they can.
My question with this is, “could they add split screen later in a DLC/patch?”
I understand that game development requires allocating resources. I understand why they are saying they can’t do it. Probably don’t have time either. A few questions though:
Does H2A run at 60fps split screen? Honest question…(cause I don’t know)
Could they perhaps dedicate just a single playlist to it somehow and maybe have it run at 30fps or do whatever they need to do to allow it?
Not having split screen is a HUGE disappointment. Of course I’m still pretty excited about Halo 5 and I’ll still be getting it. But I have plenty of friends that aren’t SUPER into halo like I am…but would totally play something like Warzone with me just for some fun. Makes me sad that I won’t be able to play halo “casually” or with “casual gamer” friends any more.
Sad End of an Era apparently. (Thank God Star Wars Battlefront is carrying the torch surprisingly.)