Lack of Multi-Screen killed the Halo star

[Samuel Roldan]

Just a little rant from a fan of the Halo series (since the Original Halo). No split-screen killed Halo 5. I remember playing with my friends when the first Halo was released. It was great to play each expansion of Halo with my friends in the same room on the same couch and even connected an extra xbox to play 4 on 4 (or 4 on 4 on 4 on 4). When my kids were born we played Halo 4 (3 kids). It took some getting used to but they learned how to play (mainly through campaign runs) and it was great to have that experience with them. It followed through on local maps that we would create and spend hours and hours playing or go in as a team and bark instructions to each other as we planned our attacks/defense. When Halo 5 was announced I quickly bought an xbox one and I pretty much let it sit there. It got sparingly used as we waited for Halo 5 and an expected moments full of future fun... we were all excited all 4 of us. When Halo 5 arrived, I spent about 20 minutes transferring all my kids accounts to the xbox one (a slight oversight I hadn't thought of before). Once I had completed the process we all huddled in the living room, grabbed a controller and prepared to play. Unfortunately, I could not add them to my fire team and kept getting an error. After about 2 hours of trying to get a game going (and through incessant nagging from now discouraged children telling me to start the game already and figure it out), I finally turned to the forums to see what I was missing. Apparently, I had missed a lot but not as much as 343 has missed. When I told the kids we would not be able to play Halo 5 together because the split screen was removed from the game they said everything that I was thinking. I heard "why did they do that?" I heard "that is stupid!" I heard "maybe we just got a bad game". It was a shocking moment for all of us. I wanted to share this with the development team that thought it was a great idea to remove split screen from Halo 5. The one and only reason I even bought an xbox one was for Halo 5. Thank you for ruining Halo 5 for me and my kids. You have destroyed my faith in 343 and have pretty much written off the Halo series for my kids (if split screen is dead for future Halo games). When and if the next installment of Halo is released I will definitely read about it and if there is no split screen it will not make it into my home. I guess Star Wars Battlefront will have to fill the void for the time being.

[Caboose The Ace]

Just a little rant from a fan of the Halo series (since the Original Halo). No split-screen killed Halo 5. I remember playing with my friends when the first Halo was released. It was great to play each expansion of Halo with my friends in the same room on the same couch and even connected an extra xbox to play 4 on 4 (or 4 on 4 on 4 on 4). When my kids were born we played Halo 4 (3 kids). It took some getting used to but they learned how to play (mainly through campaign runs) and it was great to have that experience with them. It followed through on local maps that we would create and spend hours and hours playing or go in as a team and bark instructions to each other as we planned our attacks/defense. When Halo 5 was announced I quickly bought an xbox one and I pretty much let it sit there. It got sparingly used as we waited for Halo 5 and an expected moments full of future fun... we were all excited all 4 of us. When Halo 5 arrived, I spent about 20 minutes transferring all my kids accounts to the xbox one (a slight oversight I hadn't thought of before). Once I had completed the process we all huddled in the living room, grabbed a controller and prepared to play. Unfortunately, I could not add them to my fire team and kept getting an error. After about 2 hours of trying to get a game going (and through incessant nagging from now discouraged children telling me to start the game already and figure it out), I finally turned to the forums to see what I was missing. Apparently, I had missed a lot but not as much as 343 has missed. When I told the kids we would not be able to play Halo 5 together because the split screen was removed from the game they said everything that I was thinking. I heard "why did they do that?" I heard "that is stupid!" I heard "maybe we just got a bad game". It was a shocking moment for all of us. I wanted to share this with the development team that thought it was a great idea to remove split screen from Halo 5. The one and only reason I even bought an xbox one was for Halo 5. Thank you for ruining Halo 5 for me and my kids. You have destroyed my faith in 343 and have pretty much written off the Halo series for my kids (if split screen is dead for future Halo games). When and if the next installment of Halo is released I will definitely read about it and if there is no split screen it will not make it into my home. I guess Star Wars Battlefront will have to fill the void for the time being.

 

I can totally agree with you and I really think splitscreen is a really important part of Halo. The amount of complaints we've had on the forum shows just that.

 

Now I don't know if this will be of any help but I can tell you why 343 did what they did. They removed it because they wanted to target 60fps as Halo games in the past ran at 30fps. They sad it was much more important and not many people played splitscreen. But they were wrong of course because Halo 5 ended up selling horribly compared to all other games in the series.

 

Lets hope 343 learns from their mistakes.

Edited December 10, 2015 by JXZAW

[I_Make_Big_Boom]

It's hard to see Halo ever be a thing without splitscreen, but even so you should've researched the game before buying an Xbox solely for it. That's ALLOT of money to spill down the drain, so an investment of that sort should've been an informed one. This is exactly what Publishers want the consumers to do nowadays in the age of broken games.

 

There's few justifications of said cut, and we only have speculation as well as the word straight from the horse's mouth: 343 themselves. They made a statement - an official statement on Halo Waypoint I might add - saying that having splitscreen in the game would compromise the vision for Halo 5. They didn't scrape it under the rug and hope that no one would find out. They laid it out for everyone to see knowing there would be backlash. A few reps from 343 had already stated this beforehand a few weeks before I believe. Possibly around mid-summer, to late July.

 

Granted, we can only take what they say at face value, and we don't know for certain if what they say is really true. This is coming from the same people who shoved out a broken game last year, so ALWAYS take what they say with a grain of salt.

 

Now, about the actual viability of splitscreen: Halo 4's splitscreen is atrocious. Not only that, but the MCC's version of Halo 4 sucks just at much. Additionally, Halo 2: Anniversary Multiplayer also has framerate problems though I have not played it in a while so I would not know if it's been patched yet. Still, you have to wonder if Halo is even capable of running splitscreen anymore. I mean Halo 4 struggled to maintain composure not only on the 360 but on the Xbox One. However, it's a part of the travesty that is MCC so it's understandable if does not work quite correctly.

 

Though I'm obligated to say that I have not played a "next-gen" game with splitscreen other than the MCC. I do not know if any game in the market other than Gears of War: Ultimate Edition even has splitscreen functionality.

 

So I think it's just as much a question of IF the games can handle splitscreen as well as IF they even want it there in the first place. Having splitscreen in the game would mean that people would buy less Xbox Ones, so... conspiracy theories...

[Caboose The Ace]

It's hard to see Halo ever be a thing without splitscreen, but even so you should've researched the game before buying an Xbox solely for it. That's ALLOT of money to spill down the drain, so an investment of that sort should've been an informed one. This is exactly what Publishers want the consumers to do nowadays in the age of broken games.

 

There's few justifications of said cut, and we only have speculation as well as the word straight from the horse's mouth: 343 themselves. They made a statement - an official statement on Halo Waypoint I might add - saying that having splitscreen in the game would compromise the vision for Halo 5. They didn't scrape it under the rug and hope that no one would find out. They laid it out for everyone to see knowing there would be backlash. A few reps from 343 had already stated this beforehand a few weeks before I believe. Possibly around mid-summer, to late July.

 

Granted, we can only take what they say at face value, and we don't know for certain if what they say is really true. This is coming from the same people who shoved out a broken game last year, so ALWAYS take what they say with a grain of salt.

 

Now, about the actual viability of splitscreen: Halo 4's splitscreen is atrocious. Not only that, but the MCC's version of Halo 4 sucks just at much. Additionally, Halo 2: Anniversary Multiplayer also has framerate problems though I have not played it in a while so I would not know if it's been patched yet. Still, you have to wonder if Halo is even capable of running splitscreen anymore. I mean Halo 4 struggled to maintain composure not only on the 360 but on the Xbox One. However, it's a part of the travesty that is MCC so it's understandable if does not work quite correctly.

 

Though I'm obligated to say that I have not played a "next-gen" game with splitscreen other than the MCC. I do not know if any game in the market other than Gears of War: Ultimate Edition even has splitscreen functionality.

 

So I think it's just as much a question of IF the games can handle splitscreen as well as IF they even want it there in the first place. Having splitscreen in the game would mean that people would buy less Xbox Ones, so... conspiracy theories...

 

"So I think it's just as much a question of IF the games can handle splitscreen as well as IF they even want it there in the first place. Having splitscreen in the game would mean that people would buy less Xbox Ones, so... conspiracy theories..."

 

Wut.

 

Halo 5 sold the least copies of any Halo game in history. Its also the first Halo game (besides Halo Wars) to not have splitscreen. So lets think. Halo 5 sells the least units in Halo history and does not have splitscreen. Not only that but a lot of the complaints on Halo 5 forums around the web were splitscreen related. Hm, its not like there could be a connection between them all. Oh wait. There is!

 

Splitscreen and poor Xb1 sales is why Halo 5 has not done well. Not only that but its probably got something to with the bad reputation 343 got after TMCC.

[GambitXM]

Halo to me and friends was a big party game. We gathered together to play, have one big party and enjoy each other's company in between matches. This is now gone :-( 343 (and apparently Microsoft, apparently lack of system link is their doing) did not think this was important. Eventually, we will all say to ourselves that Halo is not important.

[Tjanosplitscreen]

We have bought 3 generations of Xbox due to halo, each time when tempted by PlayStation users we just had to say halo, discussion over. But now with no multiscreen coop mode its bitterly disappointing. My son now plays alone, watching is not the same regardless of how good the quality is. People who made this decision must not have enjoyed family gaming. Many other titles can still do cop split screen. There is no reason why 343 can't do a 30 fps version we'd happily pay for this. Until then its so sad you have killed the reason we bought Xbox. Please release a coop split screen version. If not we will not be buying Halo 6. Your USP will be gone.

[Tara Basso]

I completely agree and am terribly upset, what Halo 5 has done. All my kids wanted for Christmas was Xbox One so they could play Halo 5. We made the investment of a new console and game and now they can't even play together. We will be returning the console and game and the special edition Halo controller. Extremely disappointed and will think twice before ever purchasing an xbox product and Halo game again.