During the last couple of years we've seen a real resurgence of local multiplayer through cheap downloadable releases like Nidhogg, Gang Beasts, Lethal League and so on. Most of these games have players competing or cooperating on the same screen. At the same time however fewer and fewer games are offering split-screen experiences for fans of racing and FPS games for example. Even Halo, the unofficial king of split-screen FPS, is dropping support for four-players in their next iteration.

All of my favorite multiplayer gaming experiences have been had with split-screen games of various sorts; Goldeneye, Timesplitters, racing games like Forza and Gran Turismo, Gears of War and Halo just to name a few. There's just nothing quite like going through an epic campaign with a friend or duking it out over a few laps of Forza in the same room.

As I said before it's getting harder and harder to find these experiences. The problem has been exasperated by the dawn of the current generation of consoles. Most of my friends still don't own a PS4 or Xbox One, but they would like to come over and try out all the latest games at my place. This was not an issue with the last gen which had a good selection of split-screen games available from launch, but now I mostly find myself suggesting if people want to play some Drawful.

When big HD-televisions started becoming more prevalent I was hoping that bigger screens with higher resolutions would lead to a resurgence of split-screen gaming. This is clearly not the case and as screens keep getting larger and larger it seems like people are increasingly complaining about sacrificing screen space for split-screen purposes. Thinking back to the times when I was playing four-player split-screen games with my friends on a crummy 19" television with my friends all the complaints start sounding more and more ridiculous.

So I guess what I want to figure out is if I'm in the minority regarding this matter, or if there actually is wide-spread demand for split-screen multiplayer out there? It would also be nice to hear about the times you've had with split-screen gaming.

I care, I thought it was silly that the recent PS3 port of Duke Nukem 3D didn't have it, when previous console ports of that game have had it on hardware with a fraction of the power of even that 10 year old console. I've even enjoyed PC games with split-screen - back in the late 90's when Doom source ports were becoming a thing, both ZDoom and Doom Legacy had split-screen (Zdoom later became the basis for Skulltag and Zandronum, the most popular online multiplayer clients), and with the increasing popularity of gamepads on PC, I see no sense in not including split-screen, yet it's often not included even in games that have split-screen on consoles.

Back in the mid 90's, even the strategy game Settlers II supported split-screen if you connected two mice to the computer, and it was a blast to play it like that.

As you said, with bigger TV's and monitors, not to mention the PC's capabilities for very high resolutions, there hasn't been a better time for split-screen than now.

When trying to decide on what system I wanted earlier this year I realized I valued a system that offered local mulitplayer support. My advice is to get a Wii U. It has been the best purchase I've made in a while. Being able to have games that allow for 4-8 players locally (Right now I have Nintendo Land, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and Smash 4) has been awesome and lead to super fun game nights.

I still think split-screen gaming is great and should stay for as long as possible. It adds a more social experience to co-op/versus if you and three friends can play Goldeneye 64 or MW2 together in one room, and I have a friend who refuses to buy a game-console, but really wants to play Resident Evil, so, since 5, we've been doing the games in split-screen (6 was really bad, but boy did the splitscreen help).

@oscar__explosion: Yeah the Wii U has a clear focus on local multiplayer. I've been playing a fair amount of Wii U games with friends, but unfortunately I don't like Mario Kart or Smash Brothers at all. I also don't think we'll be seeing a lot of split-screen racing games or shooters on the platform if people have to rely in Wii controllers.

@isomeri: To be fair the Wii U does have a standard controller.

I think that for the most part, people are okay with split-screen, a majority prefers separate screens. It's just too easy to cheat and see what the other guy is doing.

I do care. It doesn't come up that often if I'm not living with anyone, but it's nice to actually have something else to play when people come over than fighting games and Rayman Origins. I own Halo Reach specifically so that, even if I don't like shooters, there's some fun modes we can play if we're playing games. The PC isn't really an option unless we're talking like, Achtung Die Kurve(or, I suppose, Mount Your Friends). Not a lot of wired 360 controllers around my place, and sitting around a PC is worse than a TV.

We're an enthusiast site though, not exactly a good representation of whether most people care or not.

Just wanted to mention Screencheat. That’s all.

I care...

Every year I play split screen COD with my lady. It's the one FPS that we keep coming back to because of that. I wish more games would offer it!