10 Times The Games Industry Had No Idea WTF It Was Doing

7. Phasing Out Split-Screen

Borderlands Handsome Collection split screen
2K Games

Before the days of online gaming, one of the only ways that people could play together (that didn't involve a bunch of extra consoles, TVs and a hell of a lot of wires) was through split-screen.

But it wouldn't be right to say that split-screen was popular just because players couldn't play online yet. Having someone physically in the room with you while you were blasting through Halo always felt great, and it meant that families weren't forced to buy more than one copy of a game just so siblings could play together.

As the years have gone on however developers have focused less and less on implementing this once-standard feature.

Every company has a different excuse as to why, but it's easy to see the cynical reason many players have landed on: why would publishers only sell one copy to one family member, when it could sell multiple copies to all of them?

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.