Why is split-screen removed from PC games?

[Dreakon13]

Is there a reason for this? Borderlands, Left 4 Dead and Resident Evil 5 are the biggies I can think of, where the consoles have split-screen but the developers actually go the extra mile to have that functionality removed from the PC ports. Just looked at Lord of the Rings: War In The North and saw split-screen gameplay footage... of course it's not available on the PC though. It can't be because of performance, right?

Even if it's just because "couch coop" is less popular on PC, wouldn't it be more work to take existing functionality out of a game than to just leave it?

I realize it's a better question for the developers themselves, but just for discussion purposes I wanted to ask here. Why is this accepted practice? Especially with the PC slowly working it's way into the living room...

[mason]

Początkowo opublikowane przez George Pedrosa:

YES to this thread. I always connect my PC to my HD television when I want to play games or watch movies, using an HDMI cable in my room. It's really no trouble at all, and it's a hundred times better to play on a bigger screen (most of the time, the games support my XBOX360 controller, but when they don't, I just use my wireless mouse and keyboard). My girlfriend LOVES playing co op games like Portal 2 and Lara Croft and the Guardians of Light, and games on Steam are WAY cheaper than the ones on the PS3 and Xbox game store.

With Big Picture right there, I thought it was obvious that there were more and more PC gamers playing on a couch and television setup. There really is NO REASON a developer should actually go to the trouble of removing a feature already built into the game like splitscreen. It's just dumb. People DO use it, stop saying they don't because YOU don't.

I gave up buying LOTR: War in the North when I found out I'm not going to be able to play it with my girlfriend just because of a random "no splitscreen on PC" rule. It's time to adapt, developers.

Also, you said that "There really is NO REASON a developer should actually go to the trouble of removing a feature already build into the game like splitscreen" You do realize that most (If not all) games that dont have splitscreen DONT HAVE SPLITSCREEN IN THE CODING/NEVER HAD SPLIT SCREEN IN THE CODING. If they did, they probably would have kept it. But they most likely didnt, as probably 10% or less of PC gamers even play split screen PC games

[crunchyfrog]

The simple reason is basically two-fold:

- It requires extra coding/conversion, even if it existed in other platforms' versions, and
- It isn't that popular, sadly.

Make no mistake, devs do have an abundance of tools available to them to see what people are playing in their games, how long they play, which bits they like, which bits they avoid, and so on. This is even easier these days with achievement monitoring.

I honestly wish it were more available, as although I personally don't have any use for it, more options are ALWAYS good.

As Chewy points out above, PCs nowadays are readily connected to large TVs, we have Steam Big Picture mode, and controllers are even standardized for PC now. Hopefully it is drawing near.

[Sycadale]

Use LAN on games like inecraft if there was splitscreen on computers you would need 2 keyboards and 2 mice plugged in so thats a reason. And if you had headphones you would need another one. thats why. .-.

[Oxajyn]

Great Discussion.... Online co op is the future of co-op gaming but i wish local co-op (split screen) were available for those who wanted to just hang out with the wife, a sibling or a friend and just game.

[Lumanator]

Because PC cannot handle 2 screens

[Dreakon13]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Omega-Xis:

Because PC cannot handle 2 screens

Fair enough, few machines can compare to the raw power found in an Xbox 360 or PS3.

[Dreakon13]

... What makes you think I wasn't joking?

[22b3]

Wow, I can't believe this is still going on...

[Dataroach]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Dreakon:

... What makes you think I wasn't joking?

you used the word raw power

[Carlsberg]

Splitscreen is so ppl with no internet can play multiplayer, thats all.

[crunchyfrog]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Dreakon:

... What makes you think I wasn't joking?

Because text is impossible to gauge inflection with, unless you specify with emoticons, or spell it out.

Początkowo opublikowane przez Carlsberg:

Splitscreen is so ppl with no internet can play multiplayer, thats all.

Of course it isn't.

It's more predominant in consoles purely because they have more than one controller port as standard. Controllers have only really been popularised recently for general use on PCs - maybe we'll see a trend and it'll change.

Saying it's for people with no internet is just plain silly. It's just another option - I play local multiplayer when my daughters or friends around, and I've obviously got internet. I suppose single player games are also for people with no internetm using your logic?

[Dreakon13]

Początkowo opublikowane przez crunchyfrog:

Because text is impossible to gauge inflection with, unless you specify with emoticons, or spell it out.

1. I've made it painfully clear, especially considering I made the topic, that there's no reason why PC cannot support split-screen. If he's not going to do any research before jumping to conclusions, then he probably shouldn't? Especially not as aggressively as he did.

2. If text is impossible to gauge inflection with, then it doesn't seem like a smart idea to assume any possibility too strongly.

Początkowo opublikowane przez realuberpie:

you used the word raw power

Which is probably what someone would say if they were being sarcastic lol.

[Midnight Sky ✨🌙✨]

Obviously, PC gamers don't get split-screen because we have no friends.

[nyquilp]

Początkowo opublikowane przez ╙Mλgíċaℓ Ήøﻇσ╜:

i think rendering twice as many high end graphics would break most computers :tank:

That should be said for Consoles. And their inferior hardware (pcmasterrace)

[Bantocks]

PC gamers don't really have friends, or if they do they're either too lazy to go to eachothers house or they can't because they have desktops which they love too much to leave