Beat Me To It. (Responses) (Gaming)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Thursday, October 27, 2022, 17:04 (761 days ago) @ Joe Duplessie (SNIPE 316)

It didn't exactly "work great"

I take it you didn't actually watch the video in question.

Excluding a few minor visual glitches, it worked pretty great. Even on the launch model XB1.

Around the 14 minute mark, they say they have no idea why it was cancelled as it's nearly in a finished state.

Yeah, it's frustrating to see it in action and not know why it wasn't delivered. That said, Digital Foundry saying they have no idea why it was cancelled is not the same as them saying there is no good reason for it to have been cancelled.

I'm confident there's a severe bug of some kind. A father and son playing for a few hours isn't exactly the most rigorous test plan--certainly not vigorous enough to pronounce a feature nearly finished.

The problem is that 343 promised they could deliver before they knew for sure--way before.

If they had mentioned it closer to launch, perhaps with a caveat, the walk back would've been less dramatic. The way it was handled was a mistake--a mistake that deserves criticism.

I think the disconnect here is some people see the criticism as too quick to assume bad motives. We don't know why split-screen was cancelled, so there must be a bad reason. It's a very cynical time, and cynicism is considered sophisticated. It's actually naïve. The majority of people don't get out of bed thinking of how they'll disappoint other people. They think they're doing a good thing. If we keep this in mind, maybe we could become a little more humble, and perhaps we could begin to have productive conversations again.