Microsoft has stepped forward to clarify that Halo 5: Guardians will not be supporting any form of split-screen, nor will it natively support LAN play. According to Microsoft, the decision was made to allow the developers at 343 Industries to deliver “the biggest Halo game to date” and that split-screen would “compromise the gameplay” and “visual bar” that they have set.
There’s even an emotional plea at the opening of the statement, where Microsoft explained it was an “extremely difficult” decision, but it was necessary. What a crock of sh*t.
Removing split-screen from Halo 5 entirely is quite possibly one of the worst decisions 343 Industries and Microsoft has made with the series.
In Halo 4 the split-screen was not perfect, there were framerate issues in some maps and the HUD was cluttered. Those aren’t the game breaking issues that would call for 343 Industries to remove the feature from the game. If split-screen caused a compromise for gameplay and the visual bar of Halo 5, perhaps they are being overly ambitious with the game… not to mention it runs in opposition to previous statements from 343 Industries Studio Head Josh Holmes where he revealed that 343 Industries planned “to support 2-player split-screen for both multiplayer and campaign co-op.”
Split-screen and LAN support have been available in every Halo game except Halo Wars, it has always been a shareable experience.
It was known that the game’s cooperative campaign would not support split-screen, but there was still hope for the multiplayer – not any more. The choice to remove split-screen in its entirety essentially takes away one of the best features that the franchise offered, the game’s community wouldn’t be so strong if LAN and split-screen hadn’t existed in the franchise. This was a game series that siblings, couples, friends, and roommates could play together.
It was a franchise that brought people together, now it offers almost as much as Call of Duty does (Black Ops 3 will have an online co-op campaign).
There is a social aspect to games, telling people that if they want to play a game in the series that they have always played together that they need to make sure they have two Xbox One’s and two copies of Halo 5: Guardians detracts from the ‘social’ portion that was a major feature of the franchise. It’s a ploy to sell more Xbox One consoles and copies of Halo.
We can only hope that split-screen and LAN support can be patched in after the game’s release, at least so the series can hold on to some of the elements that made the Halo community what it is today.
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