Halo franchise director Frank O’Connor says that developer 343 Industries may revisit splitscreen functionality for the next Halo game. He commented on the future of the feature in a recent livestream.
“Realistically, for Halo 5, it's not something we can just throw in a patch," O'Connor said. "It's just not feasible with the way the engine works." This rings true with O’Connor’s previous comments explaining why cutting splitscreen functionality from Halo 5 Guardians was a necessary technical sacrifice to make sure the game plays at a constant 60 FPS. With that in mind, O’Connor says the feature could find its way back into future Halo games: "Splitscreen is fun for me too. It's not something that I object to, and we would've loved to put it in," O'Connor said. "We'll talk about it for the next game, and we'll talk about it for the future."
There has been major backlash to Halo 5: Guardians’ lack of local multiplayer functionality. Players have expressed their disappointment on social media and across the web. There is even a Change.org petition with over 9,000 supporters asking for the feature. While there will be no official support of splitscreen for the game, players can try the Skreens media box solution that we covered earlier this week. The Kickstarter ends soon, however, so a quick decision is necessary.
Halo 5 Guardians is available for Xbox One, and has received favorable reviews from critics.
