343 Industries has revealed something that could upset Halo fans concerning Halo Infinite. Head of design Jerry Hook revealed on Twitter that Halo Infinite will only use split-screen for two players. Cooperative play with four players will instead rely entirely on online modes. This si a big change for the franchise, as there has almost always been some kind of local four-player option in these games.
Halo 5: Guardians was one of the only other games to drop features in this manner. In fact, it didn’t have split-screen as an option at all. Many previous games in the franchise supported 4-player split-screen. It does make some sens though. The increased visual horsepower demanded of the new console puts an upper limit on what can be rendered across what is essentially four instances of the game. So to keep the visual quality up, the load is split across mutliple consoles.
In short, the campaign will not have local four-player, to hear Hook tell it,”Hey everyone I saw some reports of campaign supporting 4 player Split screen for campaign and just want to correct. Halo Infinite will be supporting 2 player split screen and 4 player online co-op for campaign. Sorry about the confusion.”
The next game from 343 Industries has been teased for some time. There have been many fans who have slipped away from the aging franchise, over the years, but perhaps the Xbox Series X release can bring them back. The game did show off some new footage during last week’s Xbox Games Showcase, although some fans were less-than-happy. Fans pointed to the lack of graphical polish as a sore spot.
The new console will support higher resolutions and higher-quality textures, but things are still very much up in the air. The footage we have seen so far isn’t as surprising as some fans were hoping. The textures and effects still look good, but there may have been some rather high expectations for the blockbuster next-gen release.
The title is due sometime in late 2020, and is still in active development, so it’s important to keep that in mind. If a game isn’t finished, the polish won’t be there yet. This early footage shouldn’t really be taken as representative of the final game. Halo Infinite is expected to ship on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC during the Holiday season
