Home Gaming Halo 5 has killed split-screen and LAN

Halo 5 has killed split-screen and LAN

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17

Halo 5 kills local multiplayer

I don’t know the last time I actually fired up a game in split-screen, but that’s probably because I’m a complete recluse who loves gaming alone. Everything is online now, killing the need to buddy up and share some screen retail space. It’s exactly what 343 thought with Halo 5 too – even though they promised a few features along the way.

Previously, 343 reaffirmed fans that Halo 5 would be sticking to split-screen co-op and competitive play – just like the series has done since its debut on the original Xbox. At E3, the promise of local campaign co-op was replaced with four-player online functionality, but the dream of split-screen competitive teabagging still remained. That too is now just a faint memory.

Speaking to Ars Technica, Microsoft and 343 Industries confirmed that they have decided to completely remove split-screen and LAN features from Halo 5. The decision, it seems, spawns from the need to keep the game running pretty – and smoothly.

“343’s focus is to ensure that fans get the best Halo experience yet, and the team felt a split-screen experience would compromise the gameplay design and the visual bar they’ve set.”

Sure, split-screen compromises things like framerate and resolution, but the thousands of people still playing games locally with friends aren’t the ones really caring about that. Being able to easily lob plasma grenades at friends as fast as verbal insults at a friendly, evening video game party is the foundation that Halo was built on – so it’s gut wrenching to see the choice stripped from the franchise entirely.

It’s still all entirely possible online, but nothing quite matches that sort of personal multiplayer experience. And really, Halo 5 will probably just be weaker without it.

Last Updated: June 30, 2015

17 Comments

  1. I can understand maybe the split screen, but no LAN? FFS

    Reply

    • Pieter Kruger

      June 30, 2015 at 14:33

      Found your cell phone…

      Reply

      • Kadrick

        July 20, 2015 at 09:43

        Wow, so much stupid in human form. Are you trying to break some Guinness record for how much of an idiot it’s possible for one person to be? [Gee, get wit da times man, iz lyke you just can’t evolve, cuz lyke, gaming is moving online an all now y’know?]. No wonder Videogames are turning into a conveyor belt of baked dog-turds with insufferable dimwits like you patting develops on the back for shitting on every head with half a brain in it. For the agony that you and your army of cretins are inflicting on the actual gamers with your supplication, I really hope your next shit has traces of pine-cone in it.

        Oh, oh, there’s a correlation between wanting to play LAG FREE AT A LAN EVENT and having access to Xbox Live? So it’s all about dem advanced states of being hey? Well now, how many Xboxs do you have and what’s your internet? I’m of 100 / 40 Fiber Optic to the Premises, with 13TB download. On a 1900k Nighthawk router. And I possess 10 Xbox Ones. Is dick waving the answer to your flagrant idiocy in meme form?

        I guess that means I’ll wager that I’m a lot more invested in the online environment than you. And I’m telling you in the most intelligible terms that you might grasp that all the strength of your posting showcases you as the highest order of moron. ANYONE that reasons that LAN should be abandoned as obsolete in the context of LIVE, is the same order of moron. So, how many Tournaments and LAN Parties do you attend? Wait, you sound pretty antisocial, do you actually attend ANY parties?

        I HAZ XBOX LYVE! I NEVA HAZ TO LEAV MY HOUS AGEN!
        -Pieter Kruger

        So like, do you think you’re some fucking genius of the modern age because you’re gifted enough to own an Internet Connection?

        [I haz plugged in da ethernetz to tha webz! I be tha monkee that discovered tools!]

        Seriously, who in the fanciful fuck do you think that makes you? Some androidally evolved, interstellar, mythic being?

        Get this jammed, really, very clearly through your vault-thick skull.

        INTERNET IS LAG. LAN IS COMPETITION.

        No LAN is DEAD COMPETITION.

        Does that compute? Or would you prefer some diagrams drawn in crayon? If you missed the inference, I was alluding to the idea that you’re really, really dumb if you can’t fathom this explanation. Should I reword it?

        XBOX LIVE SUCKS COMPARED TO LAN. Is that more elucidating? Here’s a question fit for a genius. Do you think we make LAN Parties because playing on LIVE is just that good? Or do you think we don’t all have internet? No, really we like to throw LAN Parties for two primary reasons. Firstly because social-gaming is better than being a sad, sad shut in. Secondly, because Xbox Live is bullshit. Oh, don’t apologize it wasn’t a joke. Xbox Live is COMPETITIVELY MEANINGLESS. It is a fun distraction and nothing more of any legitimate competitive merit. Xbox Live is volatile, randomized, unreliable lies.

        Everything, absolutely EV-RY-THING that happens on Xbox Live is suspect.

        So of course, that strikes us actual gamers as a totally fair solution FORCE US ALL ONTO IT. And that’s what this garbage is. What you’ve shown, is that you have a propensity for being a totalitarian PoS. [Oh hai! You’re lyke outdatedz. I know youse iz knowing more about the gaming stuffz than me, but herez da mobile phonz joke]. You’d like to think that you’re in touch with the cutting edge. You’re the blunt edge. Your inexperience in the actual cutting edge shows in what you think IS the cutting edge.

        Xbox Live is no more than a CONVENIENCE in the absence of the true gaming environment of LAN. But your blunt is showing that this is alien to you.

        343i jerked everyone off with their recruitment of actual pro-gamers. And then murdered the true competition environment in the crib. So, which braindead gumby has to be fired to fix this catastrophic fuck up? Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Brag about a game being a thoroughbred competitive platform, and supply it with no competition platform. It’s jerked everyone off with it’s serious aspirations, and turned itself into a joke. And it has an audience of drooling dullards to applaud it. Thanks for ruining gaming for the true gamers, drooling dullard.

        True gamers among you, you have seen the face of the enemies of gaming. These buffoons are everywhere. So try not to slip on their bullshit, and please to spread the word of this disgrace as far and wide in the gaming sphere, as one could only hope 343’s sphinter is torn open by boycott. But we know that isn’t likely. There is a ready army of idiots to guzzle their stinkbomb right down into their gullets, and burp up compliments.

        343i is so far up it’s own ass, that they’re taking a shit on themselves at the edge of space.

        Just, fuck you 343i.

        Fuck you oh so very hard, with a mechanized dildo the size of KING KONG’s cock.

        Reply

      • Kadrick

        July 20, 2015 at 09:53

        Wow, so much stupid in human form. Are you trying to break some Guinness record for how much of an idiot it’s possible for one person to be? [Gee, get wit da times man, iz lyke you just can’t evolve, cuz lyke, gaming is moving online an all now y’know?]. No wonder Videogames are turning into a conveyor belt of baked dog-turds with insufferable dimwits like you patting develops on the back for shitting on every head with half a brain in it. For the agony that you and your army of cretins are inflicting on the actual gamers with your supplication, I really hope your next shit has traces of pine-cone in it.

        Oh, oh, there’s a correlation between wanting to play LAG FREE AT A LAN EVENT and having access to Xbox Live? So it’s all about dem advanced states of being hey? Well now, how many Xboxs do you have and what’s your internet? I’m on 100 / 40 Fiber Optic to the Premises, with 13TB download. On a 1900k Nighthawk router. And I possess 10 Xbox Ones. Is dick waving the answer to your flagrant idiocy in meme form?

        In other words, I’ll wager that I’m far more invested in the online environment than you. And I’m telling you in the most intelligible terms that you might grasp that all the strength of your posting showcases you as the highest order of moron. ANYONE that reasons that LAN should be abandoned as obsolete in the context of LIVE, is the same order of moron. So, how many Tournaments and LAN Parties do you attend? Wait, you sound pretty antisocial, do you actually attend ANY parties?

        I HAZ XBOX LYVE! I NEVA HAZ TO LEAV MY HOUS AGEN!
        -Pieter Kruger

        So like, do you think you’re some fucking genius of the modern age because you’re gifted enough to own an Internet Connection?

        [I haz plugged in da ethernetz to tha webz! I be tha monkee that discovered tools!]

        Seriously, who in the fanciful fuck do you think that makes you? Some androidally evolved, interstellar, mythic being?

        Get this jammed, really, very clearly through your vault-thick skull.

        INTERNET IS LAG. LAN IS COMPETITION.

        No LAN is DEAD COMPETITION.

        Does that compute? Or would you prefer some diagrams drawn in crayon? If you missed the inference, I was alluding to the idea that you’re really, really dumb if you can’t fathom this explanation. Should I reword it?

        XBOX LIVE SUCKS COMPARED TO LAN. Is that more elucidating? Here’s a question fit for a genius. Do you think we make LAN Parties because playing on LIVE is just that good? Or do you think we don’t all have internet? No, really we like to throw LAN Parties for two primary reasons. Firstly because social-gaming is better than being a sad, sad shut in. Secondly, because Xbox Live is bullshit. Oh, don’t apologize it wasn’t a joke. Xbox Live is COMPETITIVELY MEANINGLESS. It is a fun distraction and nothing more of any legitimate competitive merit. Xbox Live is volatile, randomized, unreliable lies.

        Everything, absolutely EV-RY-THING that happens on Xbox Live is suspect.

        So of course, that strikes us actual gamers as a totally fair solution FORCE US ALL ONTO IT. And that’s what this garbage is. What you’ve shown, is that you have a propensity for being a totalitarian PoS. [Oh hai! You’re lyke outdatedz. I know youse iz knowing more about the gaming stuffz than me, but herez da mobile phonz joke]. You’d like to think that you’re in touch with the cutting edge. You’re the blunt edge. Your inexperience in the actual cutting edge shows in what you think IS the cutting edge.

        Xbox Live is no more than a CONVENIENCE in the absence of the true gaming environment of LAN. But your blunty ways are showing that this is alien to you.

        343i jerked everyone off with their recruitment of actual pro-gamers. And then murdered the true competition environment in the crib. So, which braindead gumby has to be fired to fix this catastrophic fuck up? Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Brag about a game being a thoroughbred competitive platform, and supply it with no competition platform. It’s jerked everyone off with it’s serious aspirations, and turned itself into a joke. And it has an audience of drooling dullards to applaud it. Thanks for ruining gaming for the true gamers, drooling dullard.

        True gamers among you, you have seen the face of the enemies of gaming. These buffoons abound all over. So try not to slip on their bullshit, and please to spread the word of this disgrace as far and wide in the gaming sphere, as one could only hope 343’s sphincter is torn open by boycott. But we know that isn’t likely. There is a ready army of idiocy to crack their jaws wide like baby birds, to guzzle their stinkbomb right down into their gullets, and burp up rank compliments.

        343i is so far up it’s own ass, that they’re taking a shit on themselves at the edge of space.

        Just, fuck you 343i.

        Fuck you oh so very hard, with a sandy dildo the size of KING KONG’s cock.

        Reply

      • Kadrick

        July 20, 2015 at 09:57

        Wow, so much stupid in human form. Are you trying to break some Guinness record for how much of an idiot it’s possible for one person to be? [Gee, get wit da times man, iz lyke you just can’t evolve, cuz lyke, gaming is moving online an all now y’know?]. No wonder Videogames are turning into a conveyor belt of baked dog-turds with insufferable dimwits like you patting developers on the back for shitting on every head with half a brain in it. For the agony that you and your army of cretins are inflicting on the actual gamers with your supplication, I really hope your next shit has traces of pine-cone in it.

        Oh, oh, there’s a correlation between wanting to play LAG FREE AT A LAN EVENT and having access to Xbox Live? So it’s all about dem advanced states of being hey? Well now, how many Xboxs do you have and what’s your internet? I’m on 100 / 40 Fiber Optic to the Premises, with 13TB download. On a 1900k Nighthawk router. And I possess 10 Xbox Ones. Is dick waving the answer to your flagrant idiocy in meme form?

        In other words, I’ll wager that I’m far more invested in the online environment than you. And I’m telling you in the most intelligible terms that you might grasp that all the strength of your posting showcases you as the highest order of moron. ANYONE that reasons that LAN should be abandoned as obsolete in the context of LIVE, is the same order of moron. So, how many Tournaments and LAN Parties do you attend? Wait, you sound pretty antisocial, do you actually attend ANY parties?

        I HAZ XBOX LYVE! I NEVA HAZ TO LEAV MY HOUS AGEN!
        -Pieter Kruger

        So like, do you think you’re some fucking genius of the modern age because you’re gifted enough to own an Internet Connection?

        [I haz plugged in da ethernetz to tha webz! I be tha monkee that discovered tools!]

        Seriously, who in the fanciful fuck do you think that makes you? Some androidally evolved, interstellar, mythic being?

        Get this jammed, really, very clearly through your vault-thick skull.

        INTERNET IS LAG. LAN IS COMPETITION.

        No LAN is DEAD COMPETITION.

        Does that compute? Or would you prefer some diagrams drawn in crayon? If you missed the inference, I was alluding to the idea that you’re really, really dumb if you can’t fathom this explanation. Should I reword it?

        XBOX LIVE SUCKS COMPARED TO LAN. Is that more elucidating? Here’s a question fit for a genius. Do you think we make LAN Parties because playing on LIVE is just that good? Or do you think we don’t all have internet? No, really we like to throw LAN Parties for two primary reasons. Firstly because social-gaming is better than being a sad, sad shut in. Secondly, because Xbox Live is bullshit. Oh, don’t apologize it wasn’t a joke. Xbox Live is COMPETITIVELY MEANINGLESS. It is a fun distraction and nothing more of any legitimate competitive merit. Xbox Live is volatile, randomized, unreliable lies.

        Everything, absolutely EV-RY-THING that happens on Xbox Live is suspect.

        So of course, that strikes us actual gamers as a totally fair solution FORCE US ALL ONTO IT. And that’s what this garbage is. What you’ve shown, is that you have a propensity for being a totalitarian PoS. [Oh hai! You’re lyke outdatedz. I know youse iz knowing more about the gaming stuffz than me, but herez da mobile phonz joke]. You’d like to think that you’re in touch with the cutting edge. You’re the blunt edge. Your inexperience in the actual cutting edge shows in what you think IS the cutting edge.

        Xbox Live is no more than a CONVENIENCE in the absence of the true gaming environment of LAN. But your blunty ways are showing that this is alien to you.

        343i jerked everyone off with their recruitment of actual pro-gamers. And then murdered the true competition environment in the crib. So, which braindead gumby has to be fired to fix this catastrophic fuck up? Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Brag about a game being a thoroughbred competitive platform, and supply it with no competition platform. It’s waxed lyrical with it’s serious aspirations, and turned itself into a joke. And it has an audience of drooling dullards to applaud it. Thanks for ruining gaming for the true gamers, drooling dullard.

        True gamers among you, you have seen the face of the enemies of gaming. These buffoons abound all over. So try not to slip on their bullshit, and please to spread the word of this disgrace as far and wide in the gaming sphere, as one could only hope 343’s sphincter is torn open by boycott. But we know that isn’t likely. There is a ready army of idiocy to crack their jaws wide like baby birds, to guzzle their stinkbomb right down into their gullets, and burp up rank compliments.

        343i are so far up their own ass, that they’re taking a shit on themselves at the edge of space.

        Just, fuck you 343i.

        Fuck you oh so very hard, with a sandy dildo the size of KING KONG’s cock.

        Reply

  2. Pieter Kruger

    June 30, 2015 at 14:31

    With the Xbox One being so humongous it’s understandable that no one can bring it to a friends house for LAN anyways, oh and 1990 called……

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      June 30, 2015 at 14:34

      Not cool dude. If you start making jokes about the Xbox One’s size what are we supposed to say? 😀

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        June 30, 2015 at 15:00

        He stole my line 🙁

        Reply

  3. Hammersteyn

    June 30, 2015 at 15:03

    Borderlands disagrees

    Reply

  4. Jacob Stamm

    June 30, 2015 at 15:31

    I just love how EA, a company that never does split-screen FPS, has made splitscreen work for Star Wars Battlefront because it’s an unrelinquishable core of the game. But 343 Industries elects to take the easy road out instead of putting their brightest minds together, going back to the drawing board, and pushing back the release date, in order to appease the non-existent demographic of people who both love Halo and think that graphics are the most important element of a game. Splitscreen is a core feature of Halo, and for them to not even make 2-player splitscreen work is an incredible insult to the fans and the franchise.

    Reply

    • Jonny Ward

      July 3, 2015 at 23:23

      Mate you’ve just perfectly summarised my own feelings. I cannot for the life of me understand how game designers cannot see that the vast majority of new games are seriously lacking in soul. I’m not a simpleton, I don’t want honest original gameplay ideas replaced with glorious looking cutscenes. That’s what I go to the cinema for! Slightly off topic but what the hell is with these stupid cut scenes in modern fps’s where the game instructs you to rapidly tap a button to climb a f**kin ladder or something similar. Why did that type of wank make its way into Halo 4?!? Going back to split screen, did the folks from 343 never have a night in, back in the day, with a group of mates, LAN and split screen, beer and pizza + halo combat evolved? All of those who did cannot ever say that online gaming, by yourself, in your lonely little room with your soulless headset talking to people you will probably dislike by the end of the session is a viable replacement. Is this the actual, only direction multiplayer gaming is taking? Solidarity, taking it in fuking turns with actual friends who you physically spend time with? Are we the minority then, those of us that value social gaming? This move could actually put an end to a much loved 22 year long relationship with gaming since 4 player micro-machines on my mega drive.

      Reply

      • Jacob Stamm

        July 4, 2015 at 17:09

        Well said.

        Reply

  5. Jonas77

    June 30, 2015 at 17:33

    And they added dedicated servers, four player public coop campaign and 24 player warzone multiplayer with maps 4x the size of any previous map. ILL TAKE THE NEW STUFF…SPLIT SCREEN NEVER GOT USED BY ME.

    Reply

    • Cesar

      July 1, 2015 at 06:47

      So I’m guessing you’re going to use the whole map size. Bigger is not always better bro

      Reply

  6. rocketmonkie

    July 2, 2015 at 16:58

    Yeah, this is bs. I don’t give a damn for losing the glorious 60 fps threshold they’re going for if it means I can play on the same console with friends who don’t have the Bone.

    Reply

  7. CaptSteveRogers

    July 3, 2015 at 01:50

    I have 5 brothers. Luckily, only 4 of us play. Unlucky for Microsoft, we will not be throwing down nearly $2K for 4 XBoxes, 4 Copies of Halo 5, 4 Gold Memberships on TOP of having to purchase 2 additional HDTV’s which is not included in the $2K. Truly sad as we’ve been playing since the beginning.

    Reply

  8. DIRTY

    October 22, 2015 at 22:06

    To the kids saying “split screen is old school move on” – sorry some of us actually aren’t fat basement trolls. We have friends and families that love getting a case of our favorite beer and going a few matches. On top of that I personally have a theater room with an 80″ TV that we play older versions of Halo on all the time.

    Reply

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