The gaming industry moves quickly, so quickly that at times developers forget the value of certain features. One such feature is the reason why many gamers started playing video games and is arguably why so many people still play them today. That feature is split-screen.

Playing games together has always been part of the culture of videogames. For example, playing Mario Kart on the N64’s colourful array controllers was synonymous with childhood many people. Mario Kart became a classic partly due to its tight level design but largely due to its local multiplayer mode. The franchise has become one of Nintendo’s most prolific, spawning 8 direct sequels and various spin offs. People like driving ridiculous colourful characters around circuits over and over whilst firing crazy weapons, but what people love is to do it together (after yelling at each other when someone tactically uses the blueshell). We have all had these multiplayer experiences one way or another with our beloved games.

The Halo series was a big split-screen game for me when I was younger, but it also was the first game I ever played online. Halo 2 had an amazing online experience and set a path for which most modern shooters follow; ranked and social playlists, the matchmaking, post-game carnage report and the ability to track these records on the web fostered a rich and passionate online community and are aspects that many modern shooters have adopted over the years. But what if you wanted to share your online experience with a friend sitting next you on the couch? “No worries there” says Bungie, “here’s a split-screen mode for you”. Bungie made a damn good multiplayer game.

Which brings me to Halo 5, made by Microsoft’s in house studio 343 Industries after Bungie left the franchise. Halo 4, 343’s first Halo game, was not the greatest instalment in the franchise by a long way. 343 messed with multiplayer to the point where Halo’s pro gamers stopped playing it, and it’s best not to mention travesty that was The Master Chief Collection. When Halo 5 came out it seemed 343 had learned from their mistakes and had actually made a game comparable to that of Bungie. However, there was one piece of news that was announced before launch that shocked and enraged many Halo fans. Halo 5 would not support split-screen. The franchise in which the seven previous instalments could be enjoyed with a friend or three sitting next to you had decided not to include the physical, social element. Now Halo was not the only game to cut of its local multiplayer. Bungie’s Destiny, an MMO (massive multiplayer online) and the recent Nintendo shooter Splatoon also followed suit, along with many other recent AAA releases.

There are several reasons for this; firstly, the elusive quest for 60 frames per second (fps). For many years consoles have attempted to achieve the slick smooth gameplay of 60 fps without sacrificing its visuals. The Call of Duty series has arguably achieved its fame due to the formulae of a high frame rate with average visuals. But in Halo 5, 343 managed to pull it off; a beautiful game that ran smoothly. However, it came at a cost. The slick gameplay of 60 fps could not be replicated in split screen, so 343 decided not to go with it, and so split-screen was dead in Halo 5.

On paper perhaps this sacrifice may seem economically viable for the franchise. Unfortunately for local payers, local multiplayer records are not recorded and are therefore more difficult to quantify when doing market research. Online records do not have this problem. Developers can see how many players have played Halo and a myriad of other statistics thanks to the internet and can therefore adjust their multiplayer budget accordingly. When comparing online and offline multiplayer, it may seem that demand heavily tilts towards online. There are discussions, videos, forums, competitions, fan creations and many other Halo related content, all viewable online. 343 have seen Halo’s popularity and acted accordingly by supporting the game post launch with free maps and curated match playlists which has had very positive reaction from the fans and for this they should be commended.

However, it is the casual minority, those who don’t play online or keep up with 343’s monthly updates that are missing out and therefore are not buying the game. The local discussions are not posted online but are spread by word of mouth and shared amongst the people sitting next to you. It can be baffling for a casual gamer when they are told that it is impossible to play with more than one player on a single Xbox, especially when that game is one that they’ve been playing locally for many years prior. The heady days of Mario Kart seem very far away indeed.

The financial losses on these ‘silent’ Halo fans have clearly been seen by 343 and the backlash against the lack of split screen has been addressed by Frank O’Connor, the franchise development director and as they are “talking about [split-screen] for [Halo 6]”

So is couch gaming a thing of the past? I say not yet! There remains yet one bastion of the physical social gaming experience. FIFA! “What” I hear you say, “FIFA?” Despite its internationally bad reputation for managing actual football, EA’s soccer sim is wholeheartedly against the death of playing with people who are in same room as you; in fact, it relies heavily upon it.

FIFA 16 sold just less than 1 million copies in its first week and despite being released in October, a usually busy time in the video game calendar, was the number one selling game in Europe that year selling 5.22 million copies on PS4 alone[1]. The vast majority of these copies were not purchased by your avid, online loving gamer, it was the casual football fanatic. For many of these players it will be the only game they play, their PS4s and Xbox Ones turned into mere FIFA machines, their disc readers only seeing the underside of Messi’s face year in year out. While this might seem a shame to many, these FIFA players are doing what many of us will or cannot do anymore; sitting next to each other whilst playing. The FIFA contingent represents a market that has not been fully tapped into by the gaming industry; the people who don’t care about system wars, which games are in 60fps or in 1080p. The only thing this group cares about is having fun with their friends in the same room over a game.

If the industry can tap back into this market then perhaps our beloved local multiplayer can make a comeback and maybe then the Halo campaign can be shared with more than just incompetent, friendly AI. The day that FIFA 2020 releases without local multiplayer, is the day that couch gaming is dies but that day is far off at the moment. Hopefully that day never comes and Halo fans will be able to sit down next to a friend and finish the fight in Halo 6.

[1]http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?page=1&results=200&name=&platform=&minSales=0&publisher=&genre=&sort=EU