For Honor has been one of my most highly anticipated releases for the next year. The game looks great, and plays well. I got to try it out once again during the recent closed alpha and came away just as impressed as always. While the game is shaping up to be a great release, it looks like split-screen support, one of the key features that the developer promised back when it was first announced, has been cut.
The announcement was made in a new video released that talks mainly about the recently concluded closed alpha, via IGN. In it For Honor Producer Stephane Cardin goes over what the team learned from the event, but also breaks the unfortunate news.
“We decided this week to cut the split-screen. It was a feature that we loved, but, when we looked at what needs to be done to support online co-op, for us it was critical to make a decision now so we can polish all the features at the AAA level and make sure that we have the most amazing experience.”
Online co-op is still in the game, just without the ability to play with someone sitting on the same couch, playing on the same console. Previously the team had promised split-screen support in all modes, saying “this is a game about fighting with weapons, split-screen [is] absolutely a key feature for us…You want sit on the couch and beat up your buddy, that’s the thing.”
This is just another in a long series of games that has dropped local split-screen features, including Halo 5, which was a series whose split-screen was very much a part of what made the franchise so successful at first. However, with the transition to more online-centric multiplayer, split-screen does feel less and less necessary as time moves on. But what do you think? Is split-screen still an integral part of video games, or can you live without it if it allows the team to focus on other features more? Let us know in the comments.
For Honor hits PS4, Xbox One, and PC on February 14th, 2017.
