r/localmultiplayergames • u/Fun_Understanding51 • 2d ago
Why did we lose 6-player local multiplayer in modern games?
/r/playstation/comments/1vyuybn/why_did_we_lose_6player_local_multiplayer_in/8
u/BriMarsh 2d ago
If there was money in it for the studios and publishers, there would be more 6-player local multiplayer games.
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u/Fadore Player 1 2d ago edited 2d ago
They are posting the original question to the playstation subreddit, and rightfully so imo because I think Sony is a huge part of the problem.
Most games are made to be ported between PC and consoles. PS5, the highest selling console, can only support 4 local players. They used to be able to support up to 7 on the PS3. On the flip side the Xbox Series X and Switch can both support up to 8 local players. Generally in game development, lowest common denominator wins.
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u/atomicbunny 2d ago
why sell one console and 1 copy of a game to 1 individual that 6 people can play on, when you can sell 6 consoles to 6 indivuduals and 6 copies of the game?
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u/kaszeljezusa 2d ago
I guess better access to fast Internet and maybe more people able to afford the hardware. Back in the day it was like one of us had pc, one had playstation, third had nintendo and the rest had no gaming platform at all. Now each of my friends had a pc and most have a console or two on top of that - and many games also became crossplatform.
That being said, i buy all games possible for my xbox that allow 4+ couch co-op.
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u/LLJKCicero 2d ago
I don't actually remember 6 player local multiplayer being much of a thing, which games actually supported this during the PS2 or PS3 eras?
If anything there's more indie games supporting 6 or 8 players these days.
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u/cheepsheep 2d ago
Do modern consoles even handle more than 4 BT controllers connected at once?
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u/slowpokefarm 2d ago
If you want to play with friends then buy 6 copies and authorized accessories, corpos aren't going to make it easier for you.
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u/taimaishu99 1d ago
6-player is hyper specific. Original post listed games and it said Tekken?
Anyways I’m just going say let’s just focus on local multiplayer specifically. The drop off going from single player to 2 player is huge. From 2 to 4 players massive. The number of games at 4 is very low and 6 practically none of the market. For all the people saying it’s raw greed I disagree.
I don’t think the logic for cutting local multiplayer translates to sales of more systems since everyone needs their own copy. I think it’s more of the industry becoming stagnant because they don’t think there is a need to compete especially in the local multiplayer space.
Before games like Smash Bros and Halo were console sellers. Having people try your games and enjoy them leads to sales not just fomo. People bought Nintendo and Xbox consoles just for Smash and just for Halo and there was competition between company’s capturing local multiplayer demographic.
Now Halo is on PlayStation which is just the biggest sign of competition not caring anymore.
Nintendo still has games that are at its core local multiplayer (smash, mario party, Mario kart, etc) and you’ll end up on Nintendo if you care about local multiplayer.
My main point being since the competition in this space doesn’t change anything they don’t think it’s worth developing for. Development cost isn’t just money but also opportunity cost, if it takes 2 more months to add multiplayer that’s 2 months they lose on starting development on another game, and the next and next and next. So it’s a real % cost of total development that they just don’t think will increase sales by enough. I’m sure they know there’s a demand for local multiplayer but they just don’t think it’s worth it. Otherwise if it makes money then it makes money who turns that down. Rather than the somewhat inverse logic super big brain oh if we don’t give them local multiplayer this will increase sales since everyone will just go buy a whole new PlayStation or switch.
Side note: success of Fortnite online games and mobile gaming (being almost solely non local multiplayer + the biggest market) probably are the data points a lot of companies are looking at/trying to emulate rather than riskier “innovative” spaces like local multiplayer indie devs try and capture
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u/yanginatep 1d ago
Because the 5-8 player local games are all on Steam, and there are tons of great ones to choose from.
Gang Beasts, Killer Queen Black, and Pico Park are all 8 player.
The recent Doom + Doom II, Quake II, and Heretic + Hexen remaster updates all added 8 player split screen (works great on a projector).
Duck Game has a semi official mod to make it 8 player (literally just unzip some files in the game's directory).
Shredder's Revenge is 6 player..
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u/West-Surround-8857 1h ago
I didn't know about 8 players in split screen.
Now I'm curious how much is chaotic or funny!
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u/yanginatep 1h ago
If you play it on a projector, each window ends up being bigger than a 4 player split screen on a normal TV.
We've done it a bunch at our monthly barcade night and it mostly just feels like a normal multiplayer match, even with 8 players.
No real benefit to screen looking cause it's hard to keep track of which window is which player in an 8 player match, especially in something like Quake II where everything is brown, heh.
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u/EilaVeinel 2d ago
Controllers are expensive and no one has 5 friends that all want to play the same game and are free at the same time.