Wolfenstein Youngblood is out this week, the latest game in the long-running Wolfenstein series, and it’s the first game in that series to be focused on co-op multiplayer. Two players can play the twin daughters of franchise hero BJ Blazkowicz and take on Nazis of occupied Paris in an alternate-universe 1980, and as a co-op game it’s a lot of fun. But is the multiplayer online-only, or does Wolfenstein Youngblood have couch co-op? And if not, is there some other way to play the game with only one copy? Let’s have a look.
Is Wolfenstein Youngblood local co-op available?
Unlike previous games in the series, Wolfenstein Youngblood is all about taking on the entire game with a friend. The game has an AI partner for solo play, but you’re expected to have someone on hand to play through to Lab X and free your father BJ entirely in co-op. If so, you expect developer MachineGames to have as many options for co-op as possible, but unfortunately split-screen multiplayer is not one of them. No matter what console you play on, Wolfenstein Youngblood does not have split-screen co-op. Shame.
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Is there a way for more than one person play on one copy of the game?
Fortunately there is at least a way for multiple people to play on just one copy of Wolfenstein Youngblood, but it’ll cost a little more. If you get the Deluxe Edition version of the game for $10 more you gain access to the Buddy Pass, which you can gift to another player so they can download a trial version of Youngblood and play the whole thing with you. While they don’t get a free copy of the game to play on their own, they can play with you at any time, and you can gift the Buddy Pass to as many people as you want. It’s not quite as simple as split-screen, but it’ll have to do.