Splitscreen splitscreen, the death of splitscreen?
Do you remember when we would huddle together around an itty bitty television, staring intently at one tiny corner on the screen while trying to avoid snooping into what other players were up to? The days were glorious, before the splitscreen was killed.
Although splitscreen is still available in a few games, such as Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s very rare. Splitscreen is so rare that Reddit users lament the fact that, despite TVs being bigger than they’ve ever been, splitscreen has almost died.
In a thread entitled ‘Old Gaming Traditions you Think Should Die Already’, many people shared some heartwarming stories about enjoying splitscreen gaming, even though the thread was originally intended to be about their pet peeves. LaInquisitione stated that “Now that television screens are large, most games do not have split-screen to benefit from that”, which sparked the snowball of comments that now is dumping 100+ per hour.
Straight_Warlock replied “And in those good old days, we played split on 15″ televisions!” KwamesCorner responded “Dude! I recently retro-gamed and was like WHAT HAPPENED?! My friend tried to hit me for screen-peeking when I was sitting 2 inches away from my CRT television playing Goldeneye. Yeah, same.
It’s unlikely I will ever have that experience. While I’ve never been hit in the groin, splitscreen video gaming was a favorite of mine when TVs were smaller than microwaves. The splitscreen aspect was part of its charm, even though it contributed to my poor vision.
Splitscreen is the future. We wouldn’t need to strain or squint our eyes. It would be so clear that we could speedrun through RPGs with no cares in the world. We’ll never get to test our 4K TVs unless there’s a dramatic event that makes every publisher see splitscreen’s true value. RIP Splitscreen. You will be sorely missed by these colossal TVs.
