Obviously I understand the economic reasons why they don’t do that.
I’d be willing to bet that most often the reason for not having split screen is purely technical. Rendering 2 views can be very expensive, particularly if the game in question relies on view based occlusion or distance as an optimization. The other main issue I imagine would be UI. Making a 2nd UI that fits within what is potentially 1/4 a standard def. TV is a pretty daunting task, considering the complexity of many game HUDs.
I find that a little hard to believe. I don’t claim to know everything in console tech, but just from my past experience the Nintendo 64 managed to pull it off pretty well with even lesser advanced tech, mediocre graphics, and during a time when most of us were still playing on 4:3 tube televisions. Today’s consoles push out amazingly better graphics, a broader portion of the install base owns widescreen HDTVs, and game design has been moving towards reducing the need for a cumbersome UI or finding other creative ways to implement it. I just don’t see how it’s not technically feasible, but I could be wrong.
Instead I get the feeling it’s more because the demand for split-screen on the same machine is not as great anymore. Either you play locally with 2 or more players in a combined space or you play online by yourself because a particular game genre works better with more players. Most games are internet-enabled and economically it saves on the extra development time. Thus promotes more sales of the consoles and the games themselves.
