Players are wondering if Battlefield 2042 has split-screen multiplayer or couch co-op. Once a staple of the industry, local multiplayer is now a rarity as studios focus entirely on the online experience. Even LAN multiplayer is seldomly supported by games these days. So is Battlefield 2042 any different?
Can you play split-screen multiplayer in Battlefield 2042?
Battlefield 2042 does not support split-screen multiplayer. Those wanting to play the game together will need to have two systems and two copies of the game (fortunately, it does have crossplay). Furthermore, there’s no LAN support, so players also need to be connected to the internet. Since there’s no campaign in Battlefield 2042, there’s no reason to have couch co-op either.
As a series, Battlefield doesn’t have a history of having split-screen. In our research, we couldn’t find that any of the games in the franchise offered the option. This is in contrast to Call of Duty, which allowed split-screen multiplayer for a good part of its history before ditching it.
Since Battlefield 2042 features bots, it would have made a good candidate for split-screen, but most studios have completely stopped developing local multiplayer. It’s rare to the point that often games will make the news just for including it as a feature. But, of course, plenty of people still ask for it, so we can only make some educated guesses as to why it’s disappeared.
It’s possible that studios want to use the full computational power available. Split-screen gameplay is more resource-intensive than a single-player. Usually, it requires a downgrade in graphics or gameplay to pull off. Alternatively, studios may just want to sell more copies of their games. Selling two copies instead of one makes double the profit, and it seems like the number of people who would buy a game just for the split-screen isn’t enough to offset that.
