Why Have 4 Player Co-op Games Been Disappearing?

[RUINER ACTUAL]

theyve taken away splitscreen on racing games even! no split screen in burnout paradise, nascar 08 or 09. that IS a push to get people online. I dont think framerate or graphics capacity has ANYTHING to do with it. So a 64-bit gaming system (N64) can split a screen for 4 players, but a 256-bit(or whatever it is) 360/PS3 cant??? come on. its all about $$$$ and they want us all online.

 

[DracoSuave]

This thread needs to play more Little Big Planet and Rock Band and less 'There r no co-op games!' cause that game is made of ignoring the obvious.

Also, they need to make more Gauntlet: Dark Legacy and less Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows.

First person games (and by extension over the shoulder third person) is what gets made most of the time. This view point isn't condusive to multiple players on one screen, cause you need to split screens. You need side view or overhead in order to truly work the multiplayer to a four-person level.

 

[Danpascooch]

Microsoft wants to push xbox live and prevent people from not buying another console and another copy of the game.

Same reason why there aren't any games with bots.

EDIT: I stand corrected. It seems one company is defying Microsoft and giving us Bots.

Hurrah for EPIC games!!!!!

So my new question is, name one company besides EPIC that's giving us games with multiplayer bots.

Seriously, whatever happened to multiplayer bots anyway? I mean, they have been around since Perfect Dark for the N64 for god's sake, they can't be THAT hard to make even rudimentary ones.

Although I guess they are becoming a bit obsolete with things like L4D "Play the enemy" and things like ODST's firefight (Coop against waves of NPC enemies)

 

[Eskimo_In_Egypt]

Can you even name that many?

Why yes. Yes I can.

BattleTanx
Goldeneye
Perfect Dark
Army Men: Sarges Heroes
Twisted Metal (yeah its ps1 but they were out at the same time)
Destruction Derby
Star Wars Episode 1: Racer
Starfox 64
The Rush series
Mario fucking Kart
Jet Force Gemini
Wave Race 64
Excite Bike
Diddy Kong Racing
Conker's Bad Fur Day
Turok 2
Donkey Kong 64
F-Zero X
the Xena game (I SWEAR it was only rented for me by my mother.)
Duke Nukem 64
even fuking Kirby 64

Theres a bunch.

4 player Multi goes aways back.

Although I will admit that only about 3 or so games on that list allowed 4 a player story mode (4 main characters would just unbalance the gameplay, and a game designed for it would make it impossible for single play). Still its more of an option then what you get with today.

 

[Wofiel]

While I like the idea, if you want a reasonably pretty game, the framerate's going to suffer. 4 player offline CoD4 and Halo 3 can both chug quite badly if there's a lot going on.
Though personally I don't play that much offline co-op because my friends and I all have 360s and I like having a 15 inch high-def LCD instead of the 30 or so necessary for everyone to have an adequate screen size.

 

[The Last Parade]

What really bugs me is that you can have 4 players offline per console but it changes to 1 player per console if you system link D=<

(CoD4, CoD WaW)

Is it the same with Modern Warfare 2?

 

[hebdomad]

Four players on one console means allot more demand on the system than just one player. Most developers just cut co-op to just two players through campaign to save memory/CPU power eta.

This makes sure the graphics keep looking good.

There is also the view that if people want to play with others, they will just jump online. Also to preserve the numbers of people online, multiplayer bots usually don't get any green light at all.

 

[LilGherkin]

The last good 4 player offline co-op game I've played has been Little Big Planet, I'm starting to wonder why they let systems support 4 controllers, all the games are 2 player co-op at most.

 

[Huupertti]

Borderlands is a good, recent, 4 player Co-op

unfortunately it has only 2 player split screen but the online 4 player co-op is cool

 

[SideScroller99]

i had an idea about a wii rail-shooter where up to 4 people could shoot at the same time like one of those capcom/resident evil rail-shooters but with a shit-load of more zombies. I mean most wii owners will wanna have 4 controllers since New super mario bros. came out, i just think that would be pretty sweet.

 

[JoshGod]

several reasons and probly alredy said
1)processing/framerating issues - limits visual output
2)want to sell more copies of games/consoles
3)its extra work for developers
4)most people can play with their friends online anyway
5)sharing the screen with 3 people is ennoying/harder to see

there you have it and i dont mind this, the only problem is co-op campaign via internet is not as common as ulld like, but due to N.4 and N.5 i dont mind

 

[SonicSoulstrike96]

boy there sure are allot of people responding before reading the thread, i think there is a number of reasons why games stopped having 4 player offline co-op.

1. i know you said that it isn't a "sufficient reason", but it is, most people don't have 60 inch tvs, they have tvs in the 20s so for most of the consumer's playing 4 co-op would be a pain, like watching a movie on a iPod, and since developers have made it quite clear they wont spend any time trying to satisfy a minority of their fans, they didn't bother.

1½. most people don't have 4 controllers, of all the gamers and people whit just madden i have met in my life i have never seen anyone have more than 2 controllers, so unless its a planned event it wont be possible.

2. no, i don't think me listing tons of reasons will help, more and more publishers/developers yank up their prices, make shorter games and remove things that take them too long, if dedicated servers get over looked and games like Rogue Warrior get made there are no hope for 4 player co-op, and after being burned by rogue warrior i think we are facing another black era of gaming, but who knows, maybe when the third coming arrives 4 player co-op will be one of the things to rise again.

1. Imma go with the whole 'insufficient reason' argurement and would like that option.

Yeah, but if you know you're probably gonna go to a friend's house and play some games, you and your friends should bring controllers you can play with the max amount of players at a time.

2. And while everyone makes the argument of the companies not making money... I take contention with that. If the game is good and has great coop, likely each person is gonna go home to their own system and copy of the game and play that coop online or alone. We can't all go to one friend's house and play that game all the time on their controllers. It's just not done. As long as it's online, players will stay home and play with friends both far and close in the comfort of their own home most of the time. They still make their money but have the added draw to gamers with friends that they can all play cooperatively and not always competitively on the same console.

And as for recent 4 player coop... Phantasy Star Zero. A DS title that requires as many systems and games as players... still, that's totally expected and with no way around it. That's a great single and coop game on- and off-line.

 

[Ph33nix]

dude over the past 2 years more 4 player coop games have been releaased than I can remeber

 

[hazabaza1]

Borderlands.
L4D.
Gears of war 1+2.

I think 4 player games are safe for now.

 

[AkJay]

Borderlands is a good, recent, 4 player Co-op

READ THE DARN THREAD. BORDERLANDS ONLY HAS 2 PLAYER OFFLINE CO OP.

I CAN SOUND SMART IF I TALK IN CAP LOCKS TOO, IT'S CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL AFTERALL!!

On the matter... I play Borderlands online like everyone else, and online it has 4-play Co-Op.

 

[squid5580]

Microsoft wants to push xbox live and prevent people from not buying another console and another copy of the game.

Same reason why there aren't any games with bots.

EDIT: I stand corrected. It seems one company is defying Microsoft and giving us Bots.

Hurrah for EPIC games!!!!!

So my new question is, name one company besides EPIC that's giving us games with multiplayer bots.

Whoever made Perfect Dark Zero. Oh ya that was Rare. Aren't they associated with MS or something? Nah couldn't be.

 

[ZeroDotZero]

Borderlands is a good, recent, 4 player Co-op

READ THE DARN THREAD. BORDERLANDS ONLY HAS 2 PLAYER OFFLINE CO OP.

I CAN SOUND SMART IF I TALK IN CAP LOCKS TOO, IT'S CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL AFTERALL!!

On the matter... I play Borderlands online like everyone else, and online it has 4-play Co-Op.

I might be right in thinking that you can play splitscreen with people online as well, but I'm not too sure about that.

 

[Psychemaster]

Meh, I'm a PC gamer. We don't do offline co-op.

 

[CRAVE CASE 55]

Borderlands

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