Both Conduit and KZ2 are shooters which have been hyped in large part due to focusing on delivering some of the best graphics on their respective platforms. Their developers focused so much on improving graphics that they were left with no room to implement split screen.

You might ask me to prove that last sentence... Well, it's simple. KZ2 has been proven to suffer from slight framerate drops, which means they are pushing the hardware, and The Conduit only runs at 30 fps unlike most Wii games.

In The Conduit's case this means there's no way to implement the Mario Kart Wii strategy for online splitscreen, in which the framerate drops from 60 fps to 30 fps. This is not the best solution (the drop is noticeable), but one which works fine enough. Of course dropping from 30 fps to 15 fps is unacceptable which is why HVS can't do the same thing, and thus are left with no choice but to drop the feature.

This is yet another way in which the focus on fancy graphics is hurting gamers and the games industry. These games would surely benefit from having splitscreen, both in reviews and in sales. Especially The Conduit due to local multiplayer being quite important on the Wii.

I can't believe that Goldeneye on N64 which is over 10 years old had split screen (which made the game as great as it is) and in the year 2009 Conduit lacks split screen.

The lag suffered in Killzone 2 is not even close to the lag you get everytime you reach a checkpoint in Gears of War. Have you tried Killzone 2? Have you beaten it? How do you know it suffers from anything and isn't the best FPS ever made?

Have you played the Conduit? Is it even possible to know that it suffers because of its focus on graphics?

Just raising these points because I honestly don't care enough for split-screen. Not every game needs it. Quite possibly my top 10 favorite games of all time are single player only.

@perpride: Maybe you don't care about splitscreen but the games still suffer for not having it.

As for the other points you mentioned, they're off-topic.

Surely every FPS needs it.  The fact that it is absent in Mario Galaxy, MGS, Fallout, GTA, etc is irrelevant.  It is a feature that should be in every FPS and I am baffled at it's recent absence.

I don't think they suffer due to focus on graphics or whatever. If anything RE4 on the GC suffered (since it ran at a 640x364 resolution).

Yeah that comment from perpride was not very relevant anyway... All FPS games already implement multiplayer, splitscreen is just one step further, and it doesn't affect gameplay.

Notice that I'm not talking about co-op here. Just the addition of multiplayer splitscreen mode which is straightforward to develop as long as there's CPU/GPU power left to do it.

@haxxiy: I didn't know that. That's different, the game still has great graphics, and resolution affects nothing other than graphics. It doesn't affect the gaming experience since the game still looks great.

The framerate drops for KZ2 were rare in that video, and reviews didn't mention it as an issue. (Maybe a MINOR issue )

@blazinhead89: I know, but it still indicates that implementing splitscreen would be hard. Killzone 2 is evidently pushing the PS3 a lot, I think most would agree (this is my main point, the mention of framerates was just as an indication that it's pushing the hardware).

Also I think I remember seeing some thread with an article saying Guerilla is planning to implement co-op, but not splitscreen. Everything points towards efficiency (either of the engine or the hardware) being the factor which is preventing splitscreen in KZ2.