New Games and Co Op. WTF?

[Leo_A]

... but I think in the interest of them selling discs (or soon, digital distribution copies), it won't happen:

The idea? Why couldn't a high powered video game system output two HDMI ports, one would be player 1, and one would be player 2. Some games could even take advantage of this "multi-screen" technology for some really cool experiences. Basically, Nintendo DS on the big screen.

I made a post earlier and the board screwed up apparantly and didn't post it.

The roadblock from splitscreen play appearing in many games where it makes sense is due to the technical challenges. It takes effort to do splitscreen even if you're lazy and don't mind a horrible frame rate, poor draw distances, reduced texture quality, etc. You're almost having to run two instances of the same program. To do a proper job, it takes a good bit of effort and optimization. And these days it's usually just ignored due to the prevalence of easier to impliment online options that many players are attracted to these days.

Dual HDMI output doesn't solve that. If anything, it makes the problem even worse. You can reduce visual quality a good bit when you're only viewing half or 1/4th of a screen without being very noticeable to the players. If the players suddenly each had an entire screen to themselves when playing on the same console, any significant downgrade in something like draw distance is going to even less acceptable since it's going to be much more noticeable.

Dual HDMI outputs are something that hardly anyone, developer or consumer, would ever utilize.