It seems commonplace these days that games are losing one of their oldest elements that splitscreen multiplayer is being removed in favor of online. Nine games out of ten have done this and it is a shame that the spirit of fun is vanishing, however those who are like me and prefer splitscreen multiplayer will be quite happy with Gears of War 4 in which developer The Coalition has made the decision to keep in the local mode for all game modes.
The Coalitions Rod Fergusson revealed this important detail while speaking with Game Informer, he stated:
“Any way that you can play Gears of War 4 you can play it split-screen.”
There will be a cost however that may affect certain picky players, the game will drop down to half of its usual multiplayer frame rate, where the game ordinarily runs at 60 frames per second split screen will reduce it to 30. Those playing the campaign will however feel right at home with the frame rate as the main mode will also be running at the series standard 30 frames per second.
After the recent news of why Halo 5 could not run splitscreen (a decision that upset many fans) it did not seem likely for franchises like Gears of War to continue down this path. However Rod Fergusson has stated that this is not possible for the Gears of War franchise even if he understands the thought process, he stated:
“I understand it. It’s a hard thing. It’s not a free feature […] Those are realistic development trade-offs you have to decide whether you want to support. But [co-op] defines us, we can never get rid of that.”
