There must be 9 people total in North America that still spilt screen co-op.
(faux edit: this post became a bit longer than I expected and I should clarify up front that it's not specifically in response to you)
Come on, let's not be hyperbolic for the sake of defending the choice. Literally every single person I know in real life (myself included) and every one of my close online friends that plays Halo still plays splitscreen co-op,
at least from time-to-time, to this day. Yes, I know that's just one person's story and
of course I know you don't literally mean 9 people, but still. Lets not pretend that ability to play a game with friends when you're in the same room together is some bizarre anachronism, a relic of the past that simply must die because of how absurdly dated it is.
I definitely understand the technical and design reasons that led to the feature being removed, and I feel the reaction has been extreme and in some cases outright ridiculous. I think it's absolutely a shame that it's apparently all GAF can talk about on the gaming side (along with numerous other people and places online) when so much awesome news has come out. I also understand that the feature is not as widely used as it once was. But there
certainly still is a place for it in modern gaming and to act like it's absurd that anyone could possibly be upset at the removal of the feature is, to be quite frank, dumb.
In general I think it's an absolute shame that splitscreen gaming is continuing to die. Even Nintendo's support has been spotty at best, with Mario Kart 8 capping out at 2 players and Splatoon relegating it to a tacked on, anemic side-mode. It's just sad that now-a-days if I hang out with friends my gaming options are quickly becoming limited to Smash Bros. and legacy titles. It's getting to the point where I literally
have to be
away from my friends if I want to play videogames with them. Being an adult my opportunities to hang out with my close, long-time friends are rare, so the proliferation of online functionality was awesome, because now I can "hang out" with them multiple times a week. It was a nice way to
supplement, not
replace, the occasions when I can hang out with them and play a shit-ton of vidyagames together. But now I can't start up a LASO mission and screw around with my buddy, or have more than one friend over to play Halo competitive splitscreen, which is a bummer.
Again though, I completely understand the decisions and circumstances that have lead to this being the case and I'm not about to rant on the gaming side about how "343i are completely inept and ruining Halo with this, bring back Bungie!". But I'm not going to support people on the other side saying splitscreen players don't exist anymore or that the feature is better off left in the 90's where it belongs.