Split-screen during the good ol' days of couch gaming with friends has been a big part in contributing to the camaraderie and at the same time 'broken friendships'. Take for instance, Mario Cart, where a lot of jokes and memes about it being the ultimate friendship destroyer due to the conflicts and trash talk buildup during the excitement of the race.
Nowadays, developers for AAA games have been avoiding the split-screen features thanks to modern LAN and WAN connectivity. Due to this, the concept of multiplayer couch gaming has become rare among young gamers. The lack of split-screen gaming is not due to decline in consumer interest, by the way.
Along with the annual Triple-A first person shooter releases, gamers are still hopeful for a couch co-op experience but most of the time disappointed and forced to resort into remote and independent titles.
For Honor was supposedly expected to go against the flow of modern gaming by including split-screen play, however, it seems that will not be the case. In a dialogue with IGN thru a video interview, Stephane Cardin - For Honor producer, said that the dev team has made a decision to drop the split-screen feature so that they can focus on making sure that all the other existing features will be polished on an 'AAA level.'
Cardin added a statement that it was indeed a feature they love to have but when looking at the 'wants versus needs' aspect as the game finishes, it seems that there is simply much more to be done to polish the online cooperative feature. For them, it was very difficult to make the decision but polishing the rest of the game without the couch co-op feature came on top after spending time balancing what needs to be done and what needs to be cut off. In summary, they want For Honor to supply the most amazing AAA experience so some sacrifices have to be done.
Jason Vandenberghe, creative director, was surprised about the news as he told GameSpot in a recent interview that the split-screen feature was "super-required" since it is a fighting game with weapons and that it would make a great key feature. Polygon also has confirmed that the couch co-op capability has been taken away from For Honor entirely.
For Honor rolls out Feb. next year on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Below is a stream recording featuring For Honor's multiplayer capabilities:
