Stop me if you've heard this one before, but a Halo game launched on PC recently and it didn't have split-screen multiplayer support. No, I'm not talking about Halo: Reach...or Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Yes, for the third time in a row, one of the ports in The Master Chief Collection on PC relegates its multiplayer to online battles only.
Those of you with a beefy PC hoping to experience Halo 2: Anniversary with a friend are going to have to hope they also purchased a copy of the game. 343 Industries is likely not going to be bringing this feature to any future Halo games or even the pre-existing ports on PC.
One has to wonder what the reason for the omission is. If the aging Xbox One hardware can support split-screen for up to four players in its competitive multiplayer modes, why is vastly superior PC hardware not able to do the same thing? Pure CPU grunt would power past any rendering deficiencies and provide a smoother experience than even the One X can in a similar scenario.
Maybe the feature isn't being asked for? If split-screen isn't a high priority during development, 343 is probably putting those resources into better optimizing each port. That would be understandable if the ports were absolutely excellent, but they aren't.
As with the last few goes, subscribers to Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass service will receive the Xbox One port of The Master Chief Collection, so that's some consolation. It kind of stinks that you'll be forced to use gamepads and will have to deal with 1080p output, but that's one method of experiencing Halo split-screen with a PC purchase.
343 has also stated it is "working" on providing cross-platform multiplayer in the future, but there is no exact timeframe on that feature. At the moment, it seems the developer is focused on getting these PC ports out as fast as possible, which is leading to a laundry list of bugs and problems that really shouldn't be there.
The third time is normally the charm, as the saying goes, but we're still left without split-screen on PC. When Halo 3 comes along, the better question to ask might be, "Does Halo on PC still not have split-screen?"