Roughly around the end of July, Halo 5: Guardians developer, 343 Industries, announced that the next installment in the Halo series will not include split-screen support in any of the modes. Josh Holmes, 343’s studio head, explained that making this particular decision was not very easy. The decision to remove split-screen support from Halo 5: Guardians was “one of the most difficult ones we’ve ever had to make as a studio,” said Holmes via a blog post on HaloWaypoint. “We know that for many of our fans, Halo has meant playing together with friends in the same room. We all have great memories of past Halo split-screen multiplayer matches.”
Unsurprisingly, Halo fans were not very happy with the decision. Frank O'Connor, the 343i franchise development director, responded to a Tweet explaining that adding this feature was simply not possible. "If we could do it, we would do it. But it is what they call 'nontrivial,'" O'Connor said. Apparently, adding split-screen support would end up “compromising the studio's ability to provide fans with an experience that has massive scale environments, improved AI behavior, [and] increased visual and gameplay fidelity."
“With Halo 5 we are delivering massive scale environments, improved AI behavior, increased visual and gameplay fidelity,” he continued to say. “Something that truly takes advantage of a new platform. 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.” I loved having the ability to play Halo 3 with my friends in the living room. I am, and I know many others are too, disappointed with 343 Industries inability to add split-screen support. I think many of you 'old-school' Halo fans would agree with me. How do you all feel about the news?
IGN
