ΤΗΕ HALF OF IT

The rise, fall, and curious afterlife of splitscreen multiplayer

- EDWIN EVANS-THIRLWELL

Lucas Assislar has a bone to pick with the Halo series. A software developer from São Paulo whose projects include retro VR homage Pixel Ripped 1989, Assislar grew up playing Microsoft's flagship shooter, but has since fallen out of love with it thanks to Halo 5: Guardians' lack of offline co-op support. "[My friend and I] played through the entire series together, like, oh my god, Halo 1, Halo 2, Halo 3, ODST- it was an amazing experience," Assislar says. "When Halo 5 released without splitscreen, that was like a smack in the face."

This shift is indicative of the current fortunes of splitscreen multiplayer. Once all but expected of any mass-market release, it has been wiped from the feature sheets of all but a handful of blockbuster games an entire way of playing that is dying a long, slow death. Assislar is part of a small but resourceful group of indie coders trying to keep it alive. "In 2012 I got a new gaming PC, and it was bundled with Borderlands 2 [but] I couldn't play with my friend because he didn't have a PC. So I found a guide on the Gearbox forums and it was like 30 minutes of setup - it was way too hard. So I was like, 'I'm a programmer - I can make this go way easier'"