Pretty stupid justification

"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"

How do you know? Is Microsoft is spying on people to know what they play, even if they play offline modes?

Obviouly he is right, a lot of games do not even support split screen coop... it's kind of self ful filling really!

Anyway, I never play online coop, not that I have not tried it, I just find it un-interesting...

However, when I have friends over, depending who, we like to sit and pass the controller around while we talk... or play together if we have a multi-player game, last time we played Streets of Rage 2!!! there is no modern replacement

The real reasoning is that people who play online coop pay for xbox live gold, they essentially "buy" the feature, while the local coop players are a bunch of free loaders (or as Phil says, this is where the market is going).

I don't have a local co-op partner anymore so this doesn't really effect me but still, even I know this is bullshit!

*me responding to a headline and not the content*

Hum. While I understand where he is coming from, I think it is a bad reasoning tho.
I personally stopped to play split-screen a long time ago and when we play MP or Coop, my friends always play on other screens (and bring their Xbox One or use one of mines). But it is really because of personal taste, I just do not like split-screen.

Now, this option is being used by a lot of people so it is a bit sad they do not support it in Halo 5.

I feel like a big reason that Halo became so popular was because of its splitscreen. It's really upsetting that they won't be having that as a feature in 5, because I really would love to play the game with the people I live with.

His PR is just spin... he just talks based in the agenda (in the VR case it is because MS don't have a solution yet... the Halo 5 is becuase they won't implement local co op).

If MS has one of them then you see a different quote from him.

He will even lie like he did some times this year to hold his PR.

Aye, how he is tracking all of the offline co-op play amazes me. Can he tell my gaming habbits on the N64 too?

He's probably right that most players are uninterested in local multiplayer, but that doesn't make this pill any easier to swallow.

I miss local co-op and competitive multiplayer, not just in Halo but in video games in general. I'd much rather spend an afternoon with my friends in the same room, sharing some laughs and playing some great games. Online multiplayer is great, too, for friends and family who live hundreds and thousands of miles apart - but nothing matches the immediacy and intimacy of local multiplayer.

It's the reason I bought another xbox one controller with Resident Evil Revelations 2.  :(  Sadly, that was the last time I played local co-op.