Late last year, 343 Industries drew the ire of the Halo faithful after it was revealed that Halo 5: Guardians wouldn’t integrate split-screen, despite the mode becoming a staple of Microsoft’s sci-fi franchise all across its decorated history.
But one first-party game that will embrace split-screen wholeheartedly is Gears of War 4, after it was revealed that the upcoming shooter will support said mode across the board.
Word comes by way of The Game Informer Show, where Studio Head Rod Fergusson confirmed the enticing tidbit. There is one caveat, though; frame rate within the local multiplayer modes will be capped at 30fps as opposed to the standard 60fps found in the full, solo experience.
Said Fergussion:
“Any way you can play Gears of War you can play split-screen,” said Fergusson. In multiplayer, this means frame-rate will drop down to 30fps, instead of 60fps for the full-screen experience.”
Looking ahead to the imminent Gears of War 4 beta, the executive stressed that the bout of testing is a “technical beta” and not merely a marketing ploy. Set to get underway for those who picked up last year’s Ultimate Edition on April 18, here’s what Fergusson had to share:
“What you’re going to play is basically an alpha build of our multiplayer. It’s actually, ‘Hey, we have brand new technology on our servers and we have brand new features on our client and we want that to be tested at scale and we want your help.’”
Gears of War 4 is expected to launch exclusively for Xbox One at some point in 2016. Later this month, that aforementioned beta test will swing open to select users on April 18, before expanding into an open beta come April 24.