- Spencer said in San Francisco as he took questions from journalists during promotion for Halo 5:

"In the end, the teams make decisions based on the bar that they want to hit for complexity of what they're going to run on a single box. We see the robustness of what Xbox Live is today and where people are playing across Xbox Live--you at your house, me at our house. We know that's the vast majority of the co-op play", Spencer had to say about this matter.

"With Halo 5, the team really wanted to focus on making that experience great, both visually on the screen that you're looking at, and all the systems in place. While I loved the split screen of Halo 1, obviously it was kind of how multiplayer in Halo was born, I think the team made a trade-off based on what they see happening in the market today and what they wanted to do with their game.

We obviously don't know for machines that don't connect, but yeah. When you look at where most of the multiplayer happens in games, Live (is the place) just because it's so easy. I don't have to have somebody at my house. I love the nostalgia of the couch co-op of what Halo did in the past, but I also know in the realities of the day with people's busy lives, it's not as easy to get everybody in the same physical place. It's one of the advantages that Xbox Live obviously offers."

http://www.gamepur.com/news/20491-people-play-co-op-xbox-live-according-spencer-thats-why-halo-5-wont-have.html

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-interview-phil-spencer-on-halo-the-future-of-/1100-6430815/

Sometimes its better to remain silent or accept the reality instead of talking.

Lol, it's like the reverse of Nintendos reasoning for excluding online multiplayer from their games.

Splitscreen co-op over online co-op any day of the week.

I've seen a couple of people here hoping for Micro and Nintendo uniting forces in the videogame console market. Maybe they would balance each other out that way.

Never gonna happen though.

One of the reason I grew fond of the Halo series was because it became one of the few games to give the split-screen experience in a online-based multiplayer era. Some of my best gaming moments would be playing with all my friends in the room with or without Xbox Live. It's sad to see that one of the last notable local multiplayer (FPS) is leaving.

So according to Phil...

VR is bad because it prevents people from playing games together locally

But...

Local multiplayer is also bad because people should only play games online

This is pure spin cycle because they have no VR solution and they need more Xbox sells and allowing local multiplayer allows multiple people to play one Xbox console with one copy of halo 5.

Phil here's a tip: you shouldn't completely contradict yourself with PR statements so close together because otherwise people notice.

What games do you split-screen lovers play? I used to like it as much as the next guy but lately I've been playing Gears UE with my wife and meh, it simply isn't the same anymore when you mostly play online co-op full screen. So I completely understand their reasoning, I find it hard to believe there would be much demand for split these days.

Maybe you should read both interviews again and also understand Halo5 is just one game. There's plenty other games to play with one console co-op. Or quote me the part where he says VR or Local co-op is bad...

Wait wait a fucking minute Mr Spencer.

VR shouldn't be the future because it takes away from local multiplayer.

Local multiplayer gets removed from your flagship IP.

It doesn't matter cause people play co-op online.

YOU CAN DO THAT WITH VR!

I'm going to have a stroke, is this what being head of Xbox does? I really liked this guy.