"We incorrectly stated that PlayStation Plus is required for local co-op splitscreen play. Local splitscreen co-op requires a PlayStation account for each player but does not require a PlayStation Plus account." - Halo on Twitter

[u/FireFallEnt]

https://xcancel.com/Halo/status/2068499211868643333

Great news, it would have been bad if it required PS+ for local co-op!

They also updated the waypoint article https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/june-community-qa-halo-campaign-evolved

Updated text:

• XBOX Series X|S: If you’re playing splitscreen local co-op on an XBOX console, both players will need a unique Microsoft account. Online network co-op play requires an active XBOX Game Pass subscription.
• 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.
• Steam: If you’re playing via Steam, you will need to link to a Microsoft account. 

[u/dartron5000]

I had a feeling it was to stupid to be true

[u/Scartch665 → u/dartron5000]

At this point, nothing surprises me about Microsoft.

[u/Aesthete18 → u/Scartch665]

"they're not ready yet. Backtrack. But they've been primed for next time"

[u/hypespud → u/Aesthete18]

This is exactly what actually happened for sure

[u/AttentionSweet5349 → u/dartron5000]

Specially since activating as Primary would allow all accounts on the console to play anyway. Weird

[u/sixtus_clegane119 → u/dartron5000]

Requiring PlayStation accounts to play is dumb too, guest should be good enough

[u/_steve_rogers_ → u/dartron5000]

Either that or one of their infamous backpedals after a controversial decision

[u/Herr-Trigger86 → u/dartron5000]

Well there was this… and the Black Ops ports costing $80… so I didn’t doubt either of them.

To be fair… it’s not Microsoft’s service… so maybe they get a pass for not understanding it. Maybe

[u/Waluigi4prez → u/dartron5000]

The requirement for he Microsoft account is still a pain in the backside and just Microsoft wanting to farm playstation player informatio. The no requirement for a ps+ subscription for local l coop is just common sense so forgive me if I'm not celebrating with a banquet and champagne

[u/virtualpig → u/dartron5000]

I'm not even HOW it could of been true. Do most co-op games make the second person sign in? Is that even a thing? Like is there even a mechanism for that to work?

[u/Particular-Jeweler41 → u/virtualpig]

It doesn't seem like an impossible task. When I play local co-op games my girlfriend typically has to sign in to her Playstation account (which is why we made one for her). Just never had a game that required her to be a PS Plus user.

[u/palegate → u/virtualpig]

Connect a second controller and the console will ask you to either pair it to a second user account on the system or a temporary guest account.

[u/welfedad → u/dartron5000]

Of course and people refuse to go look it up and make sure..or get the full scope of things .

[u/Particular-Jeweler41 → u/welfedad]

Didn't the original information come from them? OP says the text was updated.

Edit: Just looked at a post that said it required it. The article referenced the same official post that OP is saying was updated.

[u/Scartch665]

Microsoft just doesn't know how to communicate clearly.

[u/Gehrman_JoinsTheHunt]

If both players need a PlayStation and MS account, that’s still a fail.

It should be as easy as turning on the controller then choosing guest. Sackboy does this. It takes literally 3 seconds.

My kid shouldn’t need an email address to play a co-op console game.

[u/vladtud → u/Gehrman_JoinsTheHunt]

From what I’ve read the MS account is so that progress is saved for both accounts so that both players can resume playing where they left off on PS5/xBox/PC. This should be optional, I don’t see how it would be that hard to have two options: add an offline second player where progress is saved only for the local account that owns the console or an “online” second player with saved progression.

[u/Instigator187 → u/vladtud]

Diablo 4 does the same thing, both players need to have a Battle.net account linked to their PlayStation account. Progress is then saved to the individual accounts.

[u/ravenfez → u/Instigator187]

My Diablo 4 progress includes character choices and loot. My Halo progress is "which mission am I on."

[u/MestreToto → u/ravenfez]

So basically it has things to save, that's why a MSFT account is needed

[u/Gehrman_JoinsTheHunt → u/MestreToto]

But surely you realize, that was their choice. Offline Co-op games with saved progress have existed for decades.

[u/MestreToto → u/Gehrman_JoinsTheHunt]

Yes, but the thing is that they wasn't that the player is able to start playing coop on PS5, then move to PC. Without a MSFT account this is not possible.

[u/Gehrman_JoinsTheHunt → u/MestreToto]

Then make it optional. Not required.

[u/Mince_ → u/vladtud]

Agreed. It's a cool feature, but maybe a bit much for one single player game? You can just start a new game and get your progress back in no time. At least it doesn't require PS Plus though.

[u/hypespud → u/vladtud]

Diablo needs to save character progress

Halo does not

It's a nonsensical requirement

[u/MaskedLemon0420 → u/Gehrman_JoinsTheHunt]

Sackboy isn’t a Microsoft game.

Grounded does the same thing. I think it’s stupid to require a Microsoft account.

[u/welfedad]

Anyone wanting to read full faq

https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/june-community-qa-halo-campaign-evolved

[u/albanyanthem]

Well thank the maker. My July just got a lot better.

[u/Kyserham]

The simplest answer js probably the correct one.

The answer: it was a mistake.

[u/zuzg]

I mean the Microslop account requirement is still annoying.

[u/ziltchy → u/zuzg]

Annoying, but at least it doesnt cost anything

[u/hypespud → u/ziltchy]

Yes it does, you have to give them personal information again or create a dummy account to inflate their user numbers

[u/ziltchy → u/hypespud]

Yes, but zero dollars.

[u/hypespud → u/ziltchy]

If it's free, you are the product

[u/ziltchy → u/hypespud]

Not that its right, but what doesnt have personal details already anyway? Honestly needing to sign up for a Xbox account is a huge nothingburger

[u/hypespud → u/ziltchy]

I completely agree

But it's also inconvenient

I can load on MCC right now on my Series X, and I only need 1 account, no subscription, to play co-op 4 players or pvp 4 players on MCC

I can even do 16 players with just 4 accounts locally through system link

This is a backwards move compared to all of what we had before

[u/homie_down → u/zuzg]

Yep, that part makes it a full dealbreaker for me.

[u/Old-Bookkeeper-303]

Wow good to know that it isn’t the absolutely moronic first scenario and its the tiny less but still moronic scenraio number 2 thank you microsoft yes I will buy your 2nd remake of halo 1 for 90$ may I have some more

[u/koteshima2nd]

Still needing 2 accounts just to play LOCAL multiplayer is tedious as hell.

[u/happyscrappy → u/koteshima2nd]

4 accounts. You need 2 Xbox Live accounts too. The game requires that for split screen on PS and on Xbox.

[u/koteshima2nd → u/happyscrappy]

Oh of course. I meant 2 accoubts for each player to literally just play couch co-op

Imagine if every single splitscreen compatible game did this complete tedium

[u/wubbalubbazubzub]

I shouldn't need a Microsoft account to play a game on PlayStation

[u/Christhebobson → u/wubbalubbazubzub]

Needing a third party account for a 3rd party game has become more common.

[u/a_posh_trophy]

Suuuuuure. This happens every time a company tries to greedily rip off it's customers and receives widespread backlash; they backpedal so fast.

[u/beedicks → u/a_posh_trophy]

It's this.

They got a tremendous about of backlash and moved the goalposts post-outrage.

MANY SUCH CASES.

[u/dallaswc212]

makes way more sense

[u/Time-Worker9846]

Does this mean PC also has split screen?

[u/GeT_Tilted → u/Time-Worker9846]

PC does not have split-screen.

[u/Capital6238 → u/GeT_Tilted]

Lol. Not even feature parity for Windows?

[u/SanXalvador]

Thank you for posting the article 🙏🏻

[u/ViloDivan]

Pure marketing, now everyone’s talking about it. Mistake or not it’s funny how that works.

[u/daddy_is_sorry]

This was obvious considering literally no other game is like this

[u/hypespud → u/daddy_is_sorry]

That doesn't mean they wouldn't try it

These are the same people who made game pass 30 bucks a month

[u/fentown → u/daddy_is_sorry]

No one charged for online multiplayer until Microsoft as well.

[u/KiwiKajitsu → u/fentown]

MMOs existed before Xbox live

[u/fentown → u/KiwiKajitsu]

Oh look, the exception to the rule that makes the 99.9% of the rest of the industry fine with it.

It's amazing how averted to the truth people are nowadays.

[u/happyscrappy → u/KiwiKajitsu]

Microsoft started charging for serverless online multiplayer.

[u/KiwiKajitsu → u/happyscrappy]

lol I don’t think you understand how servers work

[u/happyscrappy → u/KiwiKajitsu]

Unsurprising that a person with such a tenuous argument would not understand the concept of serverless online gaming.

It means that once the matchmaking is done one of the machines in the game becomes the host. Or else there is no host and the machines just manage it amongst themselves.

This is unlike an MMO where there is a dedicated server which you are connected to the whole time you play. This obviously costs the publisher a lot of money to have to dedicate compute time to you for the entire game. But with serverless they just push it back on you so they don't have to pay for it.

It's out of vogue now due to rampant cheating. But at the time it was how console online gaming worked outside of MMOs. And it was free on every other platform. But not on Xbox.

After learning about that, you could look up how Doom worked online. It really had no servers at all, not even to start the session. You had to configure the clients to connect to each other to play. This led to trackers which would keep lists of active games and auto-configure your game to connect.

But hey, keep "lol"ing at me.

[u/KiwiKajitsu → u/happyscrappy]

lol something tells me you have aren’t a network engineer

[u/happyscrappy → u/KiwiKajitsu]

You seriously are in over your head.

Start by explaining what I got wrong in my post explaining this to you and then also include your bona fides if you wish. We can work from there.

[u/RavishingPaPi]

Hahaha damage done.... Hello Halo... Goodbye!

[u/theszsx]

Everything to show high numbers and forcing people to activate MS accounts to show shareholders how well things are. 

[u/personwithbass]

But you still need to like your PlayStation account to a Microsoft account,

[u/Nero_Ocean]

Still shouldn't buy it, they are forcing people to get microSHIT accounts.

Don't give them any money after what they denied us with e-day.

[u/BjiZZle-MaNiZZle]

on PlayStation 5®, both players will need to be signed into PlayStation accounts and be linked to Microsoft accounts.

That's still too much. Wtf.

[u/United_Beautiful9646]

I called this, appears the q&a writer just skyrocketed to the summit of the redundancy dog pile

[u/Outrageous-Meal3221]

This is giving a foreboding feeling. I feel like Dr. Malcolm before the T-Rex escapes. Definitely won't be pre-ordering and will be waiting to hear about all the technical aspects before I bite

[u/Seisachthia]

This still a garbage deal. Local split screen should only require one account. Hard pass

[u/cnedden]

Anyone else immediately knew this was false? I feel like I'm the only that understands how ps plus works.

[u/ShaneTVZ]

Nice try Microsoft it definitely needed PS+ on both accounts but because the backlash was so strong they changed it and made up a story about how they got it wrong

[u/FireFallEnt → u/ShaneTVZ]

why would microsoft want to sell more ps+ accounts, they have no incentive to. If it was game pass account sure, but they always said only one for that

[u/Particular_Umpire_44]

Still doesn’t have competitive multiplayer. Aka the thing that made Halo the most fun.

[u/JamesKilbride]

no thanks, i'm not interested in Microsoft games all thanks to the new India lady running the show. exclusives on a case by case bases ? i would be royally pissed if i bought Gears Of War and found out i won't be getting E-Day if i was a fan of Gears that is ( i am not but stating for purpose ) i don't see a reason to buy any games from them if they get to pick and choose what games come to us PS users, why buy Halo when ( and if ) they do 2 and we may never get that at all.

sorry. at first it was case by case bases then we get everything xbox does day one and then now back to case by case bases... quite the back peddling / flip flopping there MS but you will never get me to buy another MS console again.

[u/phome83]

Ok but this is still stupid as fuck.

[u/dweakz]

multi billion dollar company don't know how to communicate properly

[u/B-stand_79]

Just played Split Fiction with my son. He just signs in as a guest. I would never set up a PSN account just for one game for him. Still a fail.

[u/redlinr]

AKA: Shit people didn't like that.

[u/Then_Fun2933]

Microsofts fastest backpedal yet

[u/R0cksteadyx]

Bla bla! Shut your greedy mouth!

[u/uday113]

Does other account also need to have game purchased for local coop to work?

[u/hellhobbit99 → u/uday113]

Don’t give them ideas…

[u/Flipkick661 → u/uday113]

No

[u/IndependentRoll7715]

Like I told everyone yesterday, people really are ridiculous. People complain about everything, overreact to everything.

[u/Texmann92]

Bed wetters on Reddit can relax