I feel like I am slightly late to the argument seeing as Halo 5 was released 2 years ago, but only recently did I learn that Halo 5 does not let you play local multiplayer. This was very shocking to find out. Flash back to the days I used to spend sitting in my front room playing Halo 2 with my brothers, and you’ll understand how frustrated this made me. It was the best part of the game, and I’m not alone. In the past Halo tournaments were wildly popular. Now I am forced to consider why a game company would omit one of the aspects that a lot of fans enjoyed most about their game. The explanation is that modern consoles are not given powerful enough hardware to run local splitscreen. In an effort to make the gaming system as profitable as possible the hardware is cheapened which results in a loss of quality.
Although specifically Halo 5 not having split screen is not what upsets me most about this situation, it does make me question the companies values. Human interaction through local co-op has tangible value, and 343 Industries (the developer) failed to understand that. Wendell Berry would say this is a step in the wrong direction, and he’d be right. According to him, direct human socialization is critical to forming a respectful communities. The community users are playing with moved to the internet. Although moving to online play does allow players to connect with more people, it also allows people to remain anonymous. Online chat rooms are notorious for rude conduct. I seem to be critical because I believe the company is more concerned with their profit margin than with the use and effect of their product. When asked why this new game does not have local co-op the person in charge said that local co-op was great, but it is a thing of the past. He says most people play online anyways, and that if the money needed to make local co-op available was relocated the gameplay could be improved. That is a decent response, but it is worth noting that their data does not include gamers not connected to XBox Live. He says that local co-op is an aspect of the game that he looks back nostalgically on, but it has no place in the future. This is the root of what bothers me in his decision.
343 Industries used its power to decide what is the best for gamers going forward, and I am not convinced they have us in mind. This is a great example of a authoritarian technic. The consumer has no choice in this matter, we are left to buy whatever we are handed and trust in the developer. There is no reason to trust in this developer though, they are not the original creators of Halo, that would be Bungie. What we are handed is a game that can only be played separate from each other. Unless, the players buy two copies of the same game, set up two screens to set up two XBoxes. Even if forcing players to buy more is not the purpose of leaving out co-op, it sure doesn’t hurt.
I would say that this new direction is not an innovation. Taking away local co-op doesn’t bring people together who would otherwise play together. People who don’t own the game or game system because of the price are also not considered in this new direction either. There are examples of technology changing successfully. USB C has replaced USB Micro on a lot of devices, but this authoritarian technic has more validity than Halo leaving out split screen. USB is better based off of the technical details such as strength and data transfering capabilities. Although taking away split screen is a subjective decision based off of values, from their decision I see their values and have decided that they don’t align with my own.