A common criticism levied at Halo 5: Guardians was 343’s controversial decision to remove split-screen from the game. It seems as though 343 learned its lesson from the fan backlash for deciding to axe split-screen, as studio head Bonnie Ross appeared at DICE 2017 to make the announcement that Halo 6, and all future FPS Halo games for that matter, will support split-screen functionality.
As reported by GameSpot, Ross made this announcement when discussing what Microsoft learned about working on the Halo franchise without Bungie at the reigns. During Halo 5’s development, it was discovered that the studio couldn’t lock the game’s frame rate at 60 frames per second and include split-screen at the same time, so the studio made the decision to get rid of the local multiplayer feature, a staple of the Halo franchise, in favor of having a smoother frame rate. 343 has made the determination that this was a mistake, hence why the company is dedicated to including split-screen in Halo 6 and all future FPS Halo games.
Halo fans that enjoyed the franchise’s split-screen feature will be happy that 343 is bringing back the beloved feature, but those that would prefer a faster frame rate may be upset by the news. However, it’s possible that 343 is dedicating itself to split-screen again because there’s a chance that the next Halo game will be capable of supporting split-screen and maintaining 60 frames per second at the same time.
After all, Project Scorpio, the upgraded Xbox One that is expected to release this holiday season, is said to be significantly more powerful than the current batch of Xbox One units out in the wild. While we know a new Halo game won’t launch this year, there is a chance that Halo 6 will be revealed at Microsoft’s E3 2017 press conference alongside the Project Scorpio hardware as a way to showcase the new system’s capabilities.
Microsoft has promised big things for its E3 2017 press conference, so it makes sense for the company to have its flagship franchise represented in some capacity. On the other hand, since Halo 6 won’t release with the Project Scorpio hardware this holiday season, Microsoft may opt to focus on games that will be available when the new system launches instead.
Until Microsoft’s E3 2017 press conference rolls around in June, all fans can do is speculate about the future of the Halo brand and what Project Scorpio will have in store for the Xbox brand. In the meantime, fans now know that Halo 6 will likely release on PC as well as Xbox One, its story will be tied to Halo Wars 2, and perhaps above all else, it will feature split-screen support. Hopefully these tidbits of information are enough to tide them over until Microsoft is ready to share more information on Master Chief’s next adventure.
Halo 6 is likely in development for PC and Xbox One.
