Treyarch quietly pulled Blackout split-screen from Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 this week

UPDATE: Split-screen returns 9th July.

News by Wesley Yin-Poole Former Editor-in-Chief

Updated on July 3, 2019

UPDATE 3rd July 2019: Split-screen returns to Blackout 9th July, Treyarch has announced.

In a tweet, the developer said split-screen returns in all Blackout modes as part of the Operation Apocalypse Z update, which goes live on 9th July.

Alcatraz will return to #Blackout on all platforms on July 9th, along with a dark new twist coming to Alcatraz in Operation Apocalypse Z.

Splitscreen co-op will also be restored in all Blackout modes with our July 9th update alongside new Blackout map updates.
— Treyarch (@Treyarch) July 2, 2019

ORIGINAL STORY 29th July 2019: An odd thing happened to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 this week: Blackout split-screen was removed from the game and developer Treyarch didn't tell anyone.

Players found out, of course, and took to various channels, including social media and the Black Ops 4 subreddit to ask, what's going on?

Thankfully, a rep for Treyarch chimed in on reddit. They confirmed Treyarch has "temporarily" disabled split-screen "as we evaluate some known issues".

"We'll share updates in the future after investigating further."

Then: "Currently disabled and under investigation/evaluation."

There's no word on when split-screen will return.

Perhaps it's apt Treyarch quietly pulled Blackout split-screen from Black Ops 4, given the studio quietly added it to the game in the first place.

Back in October 2018 I reported Black Ops 4 had split-screen, but Treyarch didn't shout about the feature in the run up to the game's release.

Split-screen is (was?) available for two in competitive multiplayer, and for up to four players in Zombies. In Blackout, split-screen performance was always pretty rough. Back at launch, I played a game of the battle royale with Digital Foundry's Tom Morgan and he mentioned a significantly lower framerate, graphical issues and a general sluggish feeling compared to the razor sharp default experience. Based on player reports, Blackout split-screen hasn't improved since.