How do you feel about the current situation of couch coop?

I have a hard time finding things to play with my wife, and lately even the things she's excited for don't give us the option of playing together. The frustrating thing is that there's really no reason NOT to include it, as far as gameplay or workload goes. If they already have it working online then surely taking connectivity issues out of the equation can only be a positive. It's all about money, unfortunately, so in an era of $80 new releases publishers simply aren't willing to allow for many instances of multiplayer wherein only one copy of the game was purchased.

I'm more or less from the same generation as Drew, used to growing up with local multiplayer in fighting games, playing GoldenEye and Halo local splitscreen multiplayer, etc.

But now that I give it a long hard look, that was probably a very specific period in the history of video games that we're past now. Younger kids would be more used to playing online multiplayer in those genres or the usual singleplayer, because it's an increasingly big ask that you would get 4 people together to play on one TV, and how many people even own 4 controllers for an Xbox One or PS4 or Wii U or whatever? And hardly any games even support that many players other than Nintendo games.

It's a fun feature, but A) I'm part of the only cohort that even has major nostalgia for local multiplayer, and B) even I can't find time for it in my life because that's a lot of controllers I have to buy and I don't have that many friends over every single weekend or anything. So I can live without couch co-op.

I don't have any AAA game I want to play couch co-op, so I don't mind the number of games that has it now.

Couch co-op is completely useless for me. I am alone...so alone. Help me.

It's lame that when it comes to playing something cooperatively locally, I have very few options. Honestly the only recent instances of couch coop that stick out particularly favorably are indies and smaller titles. Nuclear throne and helldivers to name some of the few. But sometimes it'd be nice just to have another big AAA title coop campaign to burn through with some buddies. Where the hell have those gone?

I remember not so recently people seemed to bitch up a storm about games like crawl and nidhogg etc not having online multi, now people do the same about games not having such features. As mayor quimby would say, "You're nothing but a pack of fickle mush-heads!"

Seriously though, the more couch co op / counter op options the merrier. Have a couple roomates who would be happy to play along with me.

I have no one to play couch co-op with, but from a simple observer perspective it seems like there are plenty of those games out right now? Well maybe not "plenty" but theres a decent amount.

More, I want more! I love having people over and playing games with them :)

If couch coop went away right now I would never even notice. I think its cool those games still exist but I haven't played a video game with someone in the same room as me in well over a decade.

I wouldn't use it personally because I hate the hit games take to performance and resolution. It can be very jarring at times making the game just not enjoyable even with a friend. For those that like it a lot though, if a games got co-op missions why not have local co-op?

"Co-op" is the wrong word. Nidhogg, Crawl, the archery one I can't remember the name of, the samurai one I can't remember the name of, the weird space dolphin one I can't remember the name of, Ultimate Chicken Horse, Keep Running or Die (I think that's the name), Mount Your Friends, etc: they're all competitive! That's the opposite of cooperative. I want a modern Toejam & Earl.

I want to play as much games with my wife as possible, but it's kinda hard to find a great co-op game that matches the taste of otherwise single player games... Games from an isometric perspective are not her jam, and she has simulation sickness so first person games are out of the picture. I would really love a good co op RPG like Fable or Dark Souls to play together with her...
We have two PCs, so we do play online co-op games here and there, mostly ARMA 3 mods these days... If anyone knows a good game, please recommend...

@sinusoidal: TowerFall Ascension (the archery game, I'm guessing,) did eventually add a 4-player couch co-op campaign, but honestly it's kinda hard to find anynone interested in playing the game that way.

Yep, adding this one weird feature actually makes game development easier! Producers hate it!

Couch co-op would be nice, but it'd also be nice if my friends and I had the time to actually co-ordinate and do it.

I hate coach co-op.

Ok, I'm very confused now. Couch Coop does not mean local competitive multiplayer to me. If that's what we're talking about, I kinda think there's already plenty of that.

Fairwall coach co-op. And may the flight of angels sing thee to thy rest.

I'm not surprised there is less and less of it. As the average gamer gets older the number of couch co-op scenarios probably declines due to other life factors. As a mid 20's gamer myself I very rarely find myself in a scenario where I'm playing games with friends in the same room so I appreciate the increased focus on online parties as a way of playing.

I think there's a big confusion between couch co-op and local multiplayer in here.

I wish there was more options for couch co-op in general. While I can certainly get by on online co-op, some of the best times I've had in co-op have been in person. There's something lost when you're playing online. Maybe it's just my introverted nature (along with my brother who is similar) that makes online a lot less social than it has the potential to be compared to in person. Also, I feel like couch co-op games are starting to fall down this narrow well of becoming either a top down twin stick affair or a 2D side scrolling affair. I am guessing it's to avoid split screen all together, but for a lot of those games there's something lost in that. And to be honest, they just end up being pretty repetitive.

Edit: After reading further I think I did misunderstand the question. If this is about things like, say, doing a Halo campaign with a friend, I have only ever experienced that via this site on Extra Life streams. That doesn't appeal to me and I've never sought it out or partaken in it.

In-person multiplayer games have been irrelevant to my life, aside from sports games (and even then it's rare these days) and one previous relationship , essentially since middle school. By high school it was either SOCOM II or playing sports games in person, sometimes online. A friend and I had some great fun with Nidhogg when it first came to PS4, and the ex-girlfriend mentioned earlier LOVED Super Poleriders, Get On Top and the pong game in Sportsfriends. A month or two ago my new girlfriend and a roommate had a lot of fun playing You Don't Know Jack and Fibbage XL but it didn't become a regular thing (I was surprised Drawful didn't catch on with them, though).

I did recently notice Quiplash was available separate from Jackboot 2 and so we purchased it, but turns out we need 3 players so it'll likely be a while before we play it.

I was always the person in the friend group that had to be coerced to go hang out with the crew when I was younger, and now that I'm older a combination of being totally fine on my own, working in a profession that has me constantly surrounded by and interacting with people as though they're my friends (bartending) and the lack of simple, not-so-gamey games my girlfriend can easily get into (she's one of those people who cannot compute that the right stick is your head and the left stick is your feet, for example) I just don't have a need for couch co-op in my life.

So I voted there's enough, because when I do happen to be looking for something I always find something wonderful, but I'm so rarely looking for something in that vein it doesn't bother me that I can't find more.

I definitely miss the days of sitting in the basement passing the controller around during Goldeneye sessions or spending 7 hours playing NFL Blitz tournaments and such but that's just something that comes more naturally to kids, I think.

local multiplayer whether it's vs or co-op is definitely a good thing. Never hurts to have more choice.

It's dead. It's dead and we have couch coops blood on our hands. By wanting more online functionality in the early days of XBL and Steam we inadvertently killed it ourselves.

It was the one reason I bought Battleborn....fucking battleborn.

Broforce is very underrated. Try 3 player local (4 is too much).

There's never enough.

It's a bonus any time it is added. Rocket league couch coop doubles has been a personal recent favorite. Diablo 3 of course was some of the best couch coop out there. Fighting games are a given. There's definitely stuff out there, but I certainly wouldn't mind some more.

Oh, Divinity Original Sin for PS4 is also great couch coop as well.

There's simply not enough couch coop available as there used to be, and what is available isn't all that satisfying. Many of the games I'd like to play with my family when I visit (and we do have family game nights) have no couch coop option at all.

Nowhere near enough

There's not enough big-budget games that have split screen/local co-op. All the indie games with couch co-op seem to consist of some weird sports-ball game.

More is always better. However, couch co-op (or couch competitive anyway) is actually in a pretty good state right now, especially if you have a PC. Anyone wanting more of that stuff I'd reccomend just getting a cheap PC and digging into the massive trove of indy stuff floating around.

I don't see how more options in any genre is ever a bad thing.