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Forza Motorsport's Lack Of Split-Screen Was A Creative Decision, Phil Spencer Says

Draugoth

Gold Member
forza-motorsport-e1627651992293.jpeg

The new Forza Motorsport game from Turn 10 Studios does not have split-screen and other features from past games. But why no split-screen? According to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, the decision has nothing to do with technical limitations but was instead a creative choice by the team.

"Forza Motorsport was never going to have split-screen. That's just a decision the team made based on usage,"

Spencer told Eurogamer.

Microsoft sees the data around how many people use split-screen, and it's not enough to justify the development effort to make it happen this time.

We see how many people play in split-screen and just decided to put our dev effort where people are actually playing.

Talking to IGN about the same issue, Spencer said the lack of split-screen in Forza Motorsport has nothing to do with the team at Turn 10 needing to support Xbox Series X and the less powerful Xbox Series S console. "It's just where they wanted to focus their time," Spencer said.

Turn 10 creative director Chris Esaki explained Forza Motorsport's lack of split-screen earlier this month. He said the team's "heavy investment in pushing our new graphical features and our complete overhaul of the rendering engine, unfortunately made split-screen really difficult to implement, and is also not going to be in for launch."

Some have suggested that the Series S is holding back the wider Xbox ecosystem because developers need to support two machines with different specs. Spencer told Eurogamer, "I don't see a world where we drop S."

"There are features that ship on X today that do not ship on S, even from our own games, like ray-tracing that works on X, it's not on S in certain games. So for an S customer, they spent roughly half what the X customer bought, they understand that it's not going to run the same way
 

SimTourist

Member
Have you tried splitscreen in Forza 7? Choppy 25-30 fps, cut down low graphics, only 2 cars on track, no weather and no night tracks, no AI opponents.
 

Raonak

Banned
LOL. It's not a creative decision, there were no artists saying "we don't want split screen because it's harming our creative intent."

It got the chop because it's not worth the development costs for such a feature, and it requires too many technical compromises in order to run on the series s.
 
People play split screen racing games?
I often play split screen games with my son.

Halo: MC collection, Quake 1 remaster, Borderlands 3 and Rocket League are just some that we've played recently.
None of those are racing simulation games.
 
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FrankWza

Member
There are features that ship on X today that do not ship on S, even from our own games, like ray-tracing that works on X, it's not on S in certain games. So for an S customer, they spent roughly half what the X customer bought, they understand that it's not going to run the same way
Oh Yeah Reaction GIF by Late Night with Seth Meyers
 

supernova8

Banned
People play split screen racing games?

None of those are racing simulation games.
I mean GT7 has split screen and that came out almost 18 months ago.
I suppose the argument of "nobody uses it" is fair (theoretically limited resources etc.) but it's not a stellar look when your direct competition included it anyway. Makes Turn 10/Xbox look stingy IMO.

Plus, "limited resources" shouldn't even be a thing given Microsoft's war chest. Either the Series S is the issue or they just couldn't be bothered. Can't be anything else.
 

BlueLyria

Member
I mean GT7 has split screen and that came out almost 18 months ago.
I suppose the argument of "nobody uses it" is fair (theoretically limited resources etc.) but it's not a stellar look when your direct competition included it anyway. Makes Turn 10/Xbox look stingy IMO.

Plus, "limited resources" shouldn't even be a thing given Microsoft's war chest. Either the Series S is the issue or they just couldn't be bothered. Can't be anything else.
GT7 Has an extremely limited and frankly, poorly implemented Split screen.
But it has one. Which I'm thankful because even with all it's downsides and limitedness, I still had a lot of fun playing it with my older brother, reminiscing the times we used to play GT2 split screen.
Though, time attack passing the controller is a more enjoyable experience just because I can select any of the cars I own.

The best Splitscreen experience I had this gen was Destroy All Humans.
 

pasterpl

Member
I mean GT7 has split screen and that came out almost 18 months ago.
But is is actually working as it should?

Gran Turismo 7 deserves some credit for including a split-screen option when it seems the vast majority of games have left local multiplayer behind. But unfortunately for those who want to enjoy split-screen races, it appears as though Gran Turismo 7's split-screen is completely busted. For some strange reason that we were unable to figure out, it seems that Gran Turismo 7 makes it so the second player is pretty much always slower than the first player. This means it is virtually impossible for them to win a race unless the first player loses on purpose.

this is from 2022 - was that fixed since then? Or GT7 is still broken game?
 

IDappa

Member
It Takes Two has 95% on Steam from 114K user reviews, 9.0 on Metacritic, 4.8/5 on Amazon and won GOTY awards. I've seen absolutely nothing but praise for that game.

There are plenty of people who like splitscreen. There is no splitscreen because publishers want everyone to buy their own copy and battlepass of a game.
I am pretty sure they gave you a friend copy for free so you could play with people online.

In saying that I have played half of this splitscreen with the missus. Would be interesting to see numbers of players that actually boot up splitscreen for games such as it takes two and overcooked.
 

Three

Member
GT7 Has an extremely limited and frankly, poorly implemented Split screen.
But it has one. Which I'm thankful because even with all it's downsides and limitedness, I still had a lot of fun playing it with my older brother, reminiscing the times we used to play GT2 split screen.
Though, time attack passing the controller is a more enjoyable experience just because I can select any of the cars I own.

The best Splitscreen experience I had this gen was Destroy All Humans.
You can use your garage cars in splitscreen if you favourite them. It's a bit tedious compared to the entire list being accessible but it's possible at least. Thought I'd let you know because it doesn't really explain it in the game or it's easy to miss.
 

Filben

Member
Given how shit the splitscreen is in GT7 they could have spend their 1 day effort on something else. Guess the same is true for Forza.
 
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Fabieter

Member
I am pretty sure they gave you a friend copy for free so you could play with people online.

In saying that I have played half of this splitscreen with the missus. Would be interesting to see numbers of players that actually boot up splitscreen for games such as it takes two and overcooked.

There are like 2% people on pc having wide-screen monitors. But for the love of god devs better support it. And guess what most devs do even so most people cant and won't use it.
 

Riky

$MSFT
Not worth focusing for launch on a feature they know hardly anyone uses, getting the game polished up and more tracks in is a better use of resources.
 

IDappa

Member
There are like 2% people on pc having wide-screen monitors. But for the love of god devs better support it. And guess what most devs do even so most people cant and won't use it.
Do you think that you can compare the two though?. Geniune question. I would assume supporting a resolution isnt as much work as rendering splitscreens.
 
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IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
People play split screen racing games?

None of those are racing simulation games.

The question was who plays split screen in 2023, not who plays racing games split screen.

If Forza had a split screen option then my son and I would 100% play it.
 

Fabieter

Member
Do you think that you can compare the two though?. Geniune question. I would assume supporting a resolution isnt as much work as rendering splitscreens.

Having widesceen support isnt just changing resolution. But imo that's also not importent. It's about options. Iam sure there is alot of stuff in games where most people dont actually play it. Look your standard aaa game gets completed by roughly 30%. Why do games offer late game stuff when most people dont even finish their games? It's about options and having a nice package.
 
Is there any solid stats out there about this number of people still playing splitscreen?
It's hardly a solid stat, since playing it once for an achievement is nothing, but seemingly varies quite a lot:
Trackmania with 10-15% bothering doing the required one split race
whereas Fast Furios Rise of Sh1ft3r has 60-80%

I don't know if a game I played ever asked for split screen and a higher number of races, or a specific other condition that needs more than one round.

It's certainly more than nothing but tells nothing about hours and proper playtime with that mode. I guess the more kids oriented the more likely it gets actually played by some parent with their kid.
 

IDappa

Member
Having widesceen support isnt just changing resolution. But imo that's also not importent. It's about options. Iam sure there is alot of stuff in games where most people dont actually play it. Look your standard aaa game gets completed by roughly 30%. Why do games offer late game stuff when most people dont even finish their games? It's about options and having a nice package.
Fair, I am all for options. One could argue splitscreen is not necessarily as integral to gameplay as late game content no matter how many eyeballs gets to the content though.

I think we will just continue to see less resources being put into a feature that only a small minority of people use. Surely people have noticed that splitscreen type games have been on the downtrend for some time because of this.

I just think removal of end game content effects all gamers and recieves more blow back for cut content like this (mass effect comes to mind with removal of certain choices) and splitscreen only really effecting that small percent. Also in some cases it could be a resource and technical issues that splitscreen is cut (BGate recently). If its a resource decision as long as they actually reinvest them back into the project I see no problem. If its laziness I am with you its not on.

Bit of a rant.. sorry.
 

Fabieter

Member
Fair, I am all for options. One could argue splitscreen is not necessarily as integral to gameplay as late game content no matter how many eyeballs gets to the content though.

I think we will just continue to see less resources being put into a feature that only a small minority of people use. Surely people have noticed that splitscreen type games have been on the downtrend for some time because of this.

I just think removal of end game content effects all gamers and recieves more blow back for cut content like this (mass effect comes to mind with removal of certain choices) and splitscreen only really effecting that small percent. Also in some cases it could be a resource and technical issues that splitscreen is cut (BGate recently). If its a resource decision as long as they actually reinvest them back into the project I see no problem. If its laziness I am with you its not on.

Bit of a rant.. sorry.

I mean this kinda topic deserves its own thread imo because it would make for an interesting discussion. What people think its unnecessary to invest and do in games. I never liked the survival mode in the gears of war games for example. Didn't get the appeal and always felt like it's a minority playing that.

Anyway imo splitscreen dying has alot to do with companys want you to sell multiple copies. And iam glad that iam able to play bg3 with my wife on the same copy.
 
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