This morning the latest game I worked on, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, released their latest update. One of the new features they added was the ability for two people playing on one console to both join an online multiplayer game. For the initial release of the game, we had the ability for two players to play in split-screen but only for local, non-online modes, eg. playing against AI bots. If you and your buddy wanted to play against real humans beings in an online multiplayer match, you were out of luck.
Over the course of about a year, one dude on the team, Ryan, did all the heavy lifting to get this new feature done. Now two people sitting on the couch on the same console can both go online and play against humans at the same time. I cannot overstate how much work this was and how difficult it was at times to solve the problems Ryan encountered. He’s a super smart guy and I’m blown away by his technical aptitude.
Our game is the first Frostbite powered title to have this feature. Frostbite is also the engine that powers Battlefield 1, FIFA 17, and upcoming games like Mass Effect: Andromeda. We all share common technology but we’re the first ones to bring this feature to the public. Going forward, more Frostbite games should also be able to have online multiplayer split-screen as well.