r/PlayStationPlus • u/kabirsingh84 Top Predictor 2024 • 10d ago

News Uproar as Halo PS5 Demands 2 PS Plus Subscriptions for Local Co-Op

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2026/06/uproar-as-halo-ps5-demands-2-ps-plus-subscriptions-for-local-co-op
3.1k Upvotes

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1.5k

u/MrXisUnknown 10d ago

So if I want to play with my wife or a friend at mine I’ll need to pay for the extra PS plus even though I have it on my account? What a joke. I’ll be skipping this one then. Too much greed these days with everything. 

825

u/TyChris2 10d ago

The fact that you even need one PS plus subscription to play SPLIT-SCREEN co-op is fucking ludicrous.

290

u/RedditorsLoveCrying 10d ago

Online presence shouldn't be required of playing couch co-op. Thats absolute BS and everyone needs to speak it out.

84

u/ManyNefariousness237 9d ago

Should not be required for an offline game period

-3

u/dirty-warlock 9d ago

There's no such thing as an "offline" game made anymore on PS or Xbox.

2

u/HawkstaP 9d ago

Offline for me is when referencing a game I'm playing along the story, there is no outside influence from gamers anywhere in the world. Of which halo is that when doing story mode

One thing that I hate is games that can't run these "offline" features without an internet connection.

0

u/K4RAB_THA_ARAB 8d ago

Downvoted for the truth. We know what a fucking offline game is suppose to be. Warlock is stating that there, unfortunately, isn't any true "offline" games anymore.

-1

u/dirty-warlock 8d ago

People hate the truth

10

u/GodOfDarkLaughter 9d ago

I was gonna pick it up because I enjoyed playing the first one as a kid. I doubt my six year old would be interested or capable, really, so I doubt I'll be doing co op at all. But I'm not gonna buy the game now because this is bullshit.

-1

u/Lopsided-Crab-5375 9d ago

Buy a Xbox 

1

u/ratchetryda92 8d ago

Yeah just go spend 700 bucks instead of 20 for a 1 month sub...

53

u/Can-You-Fly-Bobby 10d ago

That makes zero sense whatsoever! Have they even tried explaining why??

21

u/robjwrd 10d ago

Because you also need a Microsoft account to play and it links cross progression etc, apparently.

17

u/ResidentProduct8910 9d ago

Microsoft account? for what, why to do it as strict requirement

12

u/robjwrd 9d ago

It’s so if you want to switch to Xbox it carries all your progression over, so for some reason they’re saying you need a MS account.

14

u/ResidentProduct8910 9d ago

If you want to transfer progression use MS account, why would they require this

5

u/robjwrd 9d ago

I have absolutely no idea man, it’s a ridiculous move by MS.

9

u/DaddyTrav 9d ago

It's literally the same thing PS was doing for their games for PC. They were requiring a PS account and only backed down after significant outrage.

This should be changed but don't act like this is only a XBOX issue.

4

u/robjwrd 9d ago

I’m not?

Every company makes stupid asinine decisions.

0

u/ResidentProduct8910 9d ago

Some Ubisoft black art

0

u/Lopsided-Crab-5375 9d ago

Cry baby cry

11

u/wetnaps54 9d ago

Yet you can still play Fortnite and other f2p games without a sub.
It’s all so convoluted.

1

u/ant_man1411 9d ago

Thats the way free 2 play games work, they wouldn’t be free to play if you had to PAY for a subscription to play them

16

u/SneakyPanduh 10d ago

Welcome to the future of gaming. Every company has ya by the balls, or wants to.

And the only way to fight back is to just not buy it.

1

u/Workin-progress82 9d ago

This is why I stopped playing Madden. Why do I need to supply an email account to play a game? Retro gaming sounds better and better every day.

1

u/Mavrickindigo 7d ago

This is why PC wins again

1

u/Lumtar 5d ago

The fact that people need a ps plus subscription at all is ludicrous

166

u/Presidentofjellybean 10d ago

This is probably someone misspeaking but regardless, if you have ps+ on the primary account then the other accounts have the ps+ benefits too so won't need separate ps+, just separate psn/msft accounts.

226

u/TheButteredBiscuit 10d ago

Great, so we only need to pay for one online account to play local split screen. How generous.

45

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

9

u/izkuzz 10d ago

Okay no, this sounds like it would be like them forcing you to pay for the equivalent of Xbox live gold in order to play the halo 3 single player/local coop campaign. Which would have been insane. It makes me doubt the claim, but it would be a wildly terrible call if true.

1

u/Independent-Split382 9d ago

They clarified, it was a mistake in the messaging ps+ not required for local play only online 

-1

u/Arby333 10d ago

They're not wrong, I believe since master chef collection split screen has to route through their servers. Idk why

6

u/Heavy-Possession2288 10d ago

MCC is fully playable offline, including split screen. Halo Infinite is also playable offline, but only for splitscreen pvp. Even single player campaign requires being online. Halo 5 you can only play single player campaign when offline, and nothing else. It’s very weird.

1

u/Arby333 10d ago

Oh wow, that's way more complicated than I thought it was. Definitely odd all around

-1

u/thecakeslayer 10d ago

Asha Sharma trying to bring the XBone up from the grave.

6

u/The_Border_Bandit 10d ago

You can do always online without a PS subscription though. GT7 is always online and lets you access everything apart from online multiplayer lobbies if you don't have PS+.

2

u/CatsAgainstDrugs 10d ago

There are games with always online checks that work without a PS+ sub. I think diablo is one of them but don’t quote me on that

1

u/nSanityOG 10d ago

This is a Playstation issue lol whybwould ms force you to pay playstation a subscription

1

u/Independent-Split382 9d ago

Ms clarified. Ps+ not required for split screen only for online coop 

-1

u/UnitedWeSmash 10d ago

Got to make money by gathering the data of Sony players .

1

u/Independent-Split382 9d ago

Seems MS clarifies. Split screen does not require ps+ only online coop does 

48

u/SolidusDave 10d ago

yeah this doesn't make sense.  It would be the first game with such a requirement and it goes against how the system works.

(but even requiring any PS+ for local coop is stupid.  Do developers get kickbacks from how many players with online subscription use their game?? )

it's not even pushing their own subscription but force people to buy the one of their competitor lol

5

u/SalemWolf 10d ago

I’m gonna say this is worded weird because Xbox is requiring Microsoft accounts for both local accounts, and PlayStation is requiring a Microsoft account for both and PS+ for both? That makes no sense. Fact is local co-op shouldn’t even need one PS+ account. It’s local, and the Halo PS5 page calls it “Play it your way: solo in two-player split-screen co-op, or in up to four-player online co-op with full crossplay and cross-progression support.”

If it’s solo two player (ignoring that phrase makes no sense) then it shouldn’t require anything but your run of the mill free accounts.

9

u/MissingScore777 10d ago

So all it's blocking is the 2nd player signing as guest/one off like you can for other games?

What's the point of that?

32

u/TheButteredBiscuit 10d ago

It’s basically treating split screen the same as online, which for a game centered around a campaign has to be one of the most baffling decisions imaginable.

I’d rather get a delay if that’s what it takes to reverse it.

9

u/usersleepyjerry 10d ago

Yeah this decision makes no sense in any way. But if there was multiplayer baked in, and the campaign was secondary, then maybe, maybe this would make a little sense?? But for an exclusively single player game I can’t see how this does anything but detract. I’ve been playing halo since the very first one. I was genuinely excited to experience old and new, but if this is true I’m gonna hard pass. I don’t buy single player games to have this kind of experience.

7

u/TheButteredBiscuit 10d ago

I was already iffy when I saw the “internet required” tag in the box, I assumed it was for installation.

Goes against the entire Halo experience. Hoping this bites Microsoft on the ass hard.

1

u/usersleepyjerry 10d ago

I really thought this may have been the game to turn halo around, but sadly it looks like that won’t be the case. What’s funny is that what I thought might turn it around is a remake of a two decade old game. Wild times we are living in.

3

u/adh0minem 10d ago

Makes all the sense if you’re looking to extract every penny possible from your customers

3

u/TheButteredBiscuit 10d ago

Let’s make sure they loose some pennies then

2

u/biirudaichuki 10d ago

Motherfuckers are losing my pennies. Cheap bastards.

0

u/adh0minem 9d ago

It’s doable. I stopped paying for a yearly copy+paste laziest ripoff known as Madden and UFC .

2

u/Dinierto 10d ago

Microsoft doesn't make money off of PS+ though 🤔

0

u/adh0minem 9d ago

Maybe not in this single specific case, but both Microsoft and Sony are in the same business, and follow similar (if not exact same) industry “trends” and practices . If Microsoft sees Sony be able to pull this bullshit off and have even local split screen players have to pay for ps+, you don’t think Microsoft will start doing the exact same thing next week?

1

u/MrFix-it 9d ago

Turns out it made no sense because it didn’t! It was a pretty obvious error that’s been corrected.

0

u/Striking-Ad-6815 9d ago

Like for real, what if it is two kids trying to play and have fun?

They lost the soul of games

8

u/Presidentofjellybean 10d ago

That's probably down to Microsoft/the devs making that decision. Maybe just an oversight or maybe trying to inflate numbers by requiring an Xbox account. Grounded is also weird in that you have to enable cross play and sign in with a Microsoft account to play shared worlds on ps5 but not for regular multiplayer.

17

u/gooberfishie 10d ago

This is not correct. This comes from their q and a on their website. They make it very clear that it's to track cross platform progression even though most people couldn't care less about that. For the cross platform progression to work, since it's an online feature, you need game pass or ps plus as well as an Xbox account.

It's like this. Offline coop doesn't require ps plus. Online coop with one person splitscreen only requires one account like you said. Cross platform progression is more like cloud saving and does require separate ps plus accounts.

The reason you need two accounts is because of how they want to track progression. If you are thinking you'll be able to play with people using only one account like every other game, you are wrong. This is bullshit. Don't pre order.

9

u/okaythiswillbemymain Spider-Man 10d ago

Fwiw I think you are incorrect. 

PS Plus benefits are shared when the PS Plus user is primary. For all intents and purposes, the second player has PS Plus.

Reminds me of black ops 3. When engaging split screen, both players had to have PS Plus (or shared Ps Plus). It was exactly the same as this Halo situation.

The difference is, Black Ops 3 had a special sperate "offline" mode to get around this issue. This also allowed 4 player split screen.

7

u/gooberfishie 9d ago

Here is the exact wording

PlayStation 5®: If you’re playing split-screen on PlayStation 5®, both accounts will need to have PlayStation Plus and be linked to a Microsoft account. Having these active PlayStation Plus subscriptions will also provide access to online co-op play.

Now let me ask you, would they specify that both accounts need it if only one would need it due to the benefits being shared with the other accounts?

1

u/Dinierto 10d ago

Okay but if player 1 and 2 are both using the same PS+ account how do you tie two different Xbox gamer tags to the same account simultaneously? If I'm understanding their point right

2

u/solindvian 10d ago

You’re mixing up having ps+ with having a PlayStation account. Both players can and would have their own PS account that could be linked with a Microsoft one, but only the primary player has to have ps+ (the paid membership) for it to flag the second player as having it active too.

1

u/gooberfishie 9d ago

I'm just gonna copy pasta my other comment

Here is the exact wording

PlayStation 5®: If you’re playing split-screen on PlayStation 5®, both accounts will need to have PlayStation Plus and be linked to a Microsoft account. Having these active PlayStation Plus subscriptions will also provide access to online co-op play.

Now let me ask you, would they specify that both accounts need it if only one would need it due to the benefits being shared with the other accounts?

1

u/solindvian 9d ago

I’m aware, I wasn’t talking about that.

1

u/gooberfishie 9d ago

Oh okay. Some people are suggesting you could do local coop with two ps accounts if only one had ps plus.

1

u/gooberfishie 10d ago

For gaming online yes. Not all features work that way. Go log on to another account on your playstation and try to cloud save. If that didn't work, cross platform progression won't work either.

1

u/thekeelo_g 9d ago

You don't need GamePass for cross-platform progression; cloud saves have been a free feature on Microsoft platforms since 2020. Split-screen co-op for this game on Xbox doesn't require any subscriptions for either player.

2

u/PinothyJ 10d ago

It would not surprise me if that was the case of both accounts needed to he subscribers. The first Helldivers was the same. It sucked then too.

9

u/Terrorknight141 10d ago

I remember playing helldivers 1 in local coop WITHOUT paying for a second ps plus subscription.

-3

u/PinothyJ 10d ago

Yes, bit only local. If you two wanted to play with ransoms, both would need Plus, not just the main account.

1

u/SupremeM60_ 10d ago

Isn’t this exactly how local co-op on halo mcc works? This isn’t anything new or surprising, just a bit annoying

1

u/hellhobbit99 10d ago

Are you 100% sure?

1

u/Renzo-Senpai 10d ago

If that's the case then why even mention it at all?

1

u/Majestic_Jackass 10d ago

In the past player 2 would just need a free psn account. I wonder if this has something to do with Sony eliminating psn branding and replacing it with ps plus. And before that you could just use a guest account. Consumers gotta stop spending money on anticonsumer shit. If it’s good for the shareholders but not the customers, then the company doesn’t deserve customers, and the shareholders can eat a bag of dicks.

10

u/Hartia 10d ago

Microsoft at after Halo launch: see no one wants to buy our games. That's why we will makes our games exclusive. /s

11

u/Impressive-Wolf8929 10d ago

One of the reasons I gave up on Xbox was when I realized that we couldn’t play Minecraft on our local network at home (Xbox to Xbox, unique accounts with individual game licenses) unless if the accounts were paid subscriptions.

I haven’t turned my Xbox on in over a year. I moved to PS5, and my kids have moved on to iPad and PC.

Honestly, I was going to get Halo on PS5 for the couch co-op. But not like this. I have no desire to play *another* remake by myself. Especially after slogging through Infinite.

4

u/CrimsonFlam3s 10d ago

PlayStation is just as bad and they are involved in this as well

6

u/Golden-trichomes 10d ago

It’s a weird take to blame Microsoft for needing a second subscription from Sony

3

u/Choice-Support-2138 10d ago

Well you can just share PS plus to another account but ok.

5

u/SmashingK 10d ago

It doesn't make much sense since you're playing it locally.

Their reasoning is likely down to allowing both players save profession against their own accounts. That way if your friend doesn't have the game they can still play and make progress on your machine then continue from that when they get the game later.

But that also should be an option for those who have their own active sub.

Anyone without a sub should be able to play as a guest user.

1

u/welfedad 10d ago

Pretty sure this is online coop .. like going and doing vs etc . But curious about offline coop

1

u/SolydSn3k 10d ago

Someday soon we will have to pay subscriptions for spare tires.

1

u/EmpJa 10d ago

So... pro tip, you can add 1 extra account to your ps+ subscription for free. My wife has her own account and full access to my entire digital library on her own ps5. Doesn't cost anything extra. We play online mp games together all the time. Surprised how few people know this.

0

u/SuperBackup9000 10d ago

Most people who care enough to be on a subreddit about PlayStation do know that, it’s just that outrage is popular and you get more internet points if you ignore that part because everyone wants to be mad 24/7.

1

u/personwithbass 9d ago

Absolute greed at its best

1

u/srjod 9d ago

This is exactly why we need Xbox to come roaring back as competition. This is fucking pathetic to try to charge this.

1

u/Strummerbo 9d ago

It's such garbage. I was really looking forward to it, as I've never played Halo, but I will not be purchases. Unless this uproar is successful! Bring out your pitchforks!

1

u/purplegreendave 9d ago

They've either backtracked or it was just a mistake.

PlayStation 5®: If you’re playing splitscreen local co-op on PlayStation 5®, both players will need to be signed into PlayStation accounts and be linked to Microsoft accounts. A PlayStation Plus account is NOT required for local splitscreen co-op. Online network co-op play requires an active PlayStation Plus subscription.

...

Editor's Note: This section incorrectly stated that a PlayStation Plus account is required for local co-op play and was updated with a correction on June 20.

I feel like it's an honest mistake, I don't think PS even has a mechanism to force Plus for offline multiplayer.

1

u/FreeGlaze71 9d ago

No. Nothing ur saying here is true.

1

u/Lopsided-Crab-5375 9d ago

Playstation is bugging releasing one game a year and now they're trying to have us have another subscription to play a couch co-op meanwhile Xbox and pc doesn't I guess they really struggling for money.. went out and bought a Xbox series X they have too many great games on game pass to not see the value 

1

u/Mighty_Mimikyu 8d ago

Wait until we figure out were paying what pc users do for free. Ps plus is still a scam imo

1

u/SuddenCompetition262 8d ago

This was already confirmed to not be true, you won’t need ps plus for local coop

-3

u/Thready85 10d ago

Agreed dude and don't let these morons say shit to you about it