Halo Infinite’s hidden split-screen mode has fans questioning why the feature was cancelled

Despite promises to include local and online co-op with Halo Infinite, a recent roadmap update confirmed that 343 Industries has cancelled split-screen features. This was largely seen as odd, as players have been able to use a glitch to activate split-screen since launch, and the feature seems to work really well even to this day. 

After the announcement that split-screen was cancelled a few weeks ago, some of the team at Digital Foundry began investigating. In a new video, they put split-screen co-op to the test across Xbox Series X and Xbox One. On the new-gen system, the game handles split-screen well, with decent visual settings and the option for 60FPS with just a few minor dips. On Xbox One, the game runs at 30FPS in split-screen, but resolution does suffer, often dropping below 720p.

While co-op runs well, there are some issues that players have discovered. The time of day often goes out of sync between the two players in split-screen mode, which isn't game-breaking, but could be distracting. There's also no collision detection for the two Master Chief models, and there are occasional visual glitches in parts of the map.

The video ultimately comes to the conclusion that split-screen co-op is very close to being finished. However, it is worth keeping in mind that 343 likely has a larger team of testers that have uncovered a larger number of bugs that need to be addressed before shipping.

On 343's end, the company did admit that it is shifting resources away from local co-op development in order to speed up development of future seasonal content. However, with players being able to glitch their way into a decent enough local co-op experience, cancelling the feature outright doesn't make much sense.

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KitGuru Says: With all of this now becoming public knowledge, hopefully 343 will backtrack. Infinite has had a lot of problems, but if you have a fan-favourite, staple feature of the Halo series working this well unofficially, then there seems to be little reason to pull the plug entirely. 

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