We believe there are a lot of players who play local split-screen with friends on the couch at home, in dorm rooms, at work, and we hear about it a lot from players through social media. We do have a lot of data about how players play online, and we can extrapolate some information from that, but it does fall into the territory of 'best estimates' and just feeling like it’s the right feature to give to our fans.

The challenge with collecting data on split-screen play is that by nature of players who use it offline, we don’t have any information about how they play the game. In short, it’s actually easier now than it has ever been, and we believe it is worth it for the fun social experience it provides for our players.ĭo you have any data on how many players actually engage with local multiplayer? It’s the power of this new technology, along with the greater capabilities of this generation of consoles and PC, that allows for a more scalable system to support split-screen play. With Black Ops 3, we completely overhauled our graphics engine to support advanced features like deferred rendering, order-independent transparency, which is basically more and better-looking particles, volumetric FX and dynamic lighting. So, of course, split-screen play pushes the limits of any generation’s console technology.

Split-screen gameplay will always present technical challenges, because it renders everything that you see on the screen two to four times, depending on how many players you have locally. I caught up a little bit with Dan Bunting, the multiplayer director at Call of Duty developer Treyarch, on why split-screen local multiplayer was still important for a shooter here in 2015.ĭid you have any trouble hitting performance targets with local multiplayer? But all is not lost! The other major shooter of the season, Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, still supports that traditional couch experience for those that want it. Halo was one of the stalwarts for a while, but Halo 5: Guardians recently phased out its own split-screen multiplayer in pursuit of a higher framerate, and long-time fans aren't pleased. Nintendo' on the box, chances are you'll be playing it alone, or with a friend that could be on the other side of the world. Over the years, that elemental gaming experience of playing your favorite titles on the couch with your friends has become rarer and rarer, phased out instead for online multiplayer and sprawling single-player experiences. It's a tough time to be a gamer that loves local multiplayer. Read More: Why You Might Want To Skip Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 on Xbox 360 and PS3

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