Less a Question than a Response

Hello there. Just got my 360 copy of Dead Space 3 at long last, after getting through my stack of other games and studying to get into a grad program. I was looking forward to playing through it with my girlfriend on co-op, but when we fired it up, we found that there was no Split-Screen option. So, she or I could play co-op with random strangers or Live "friends," but could not, sitting there, play co-op with each other like we'd been hoping to since we first heard co-op was going to be an option, pre-release.

How can any game purporting to offer a co-op experience deny the customers the ability to play co-op with people they can actually be in the same room with, while readily supporting "co-op" with online strangers?

Is this merely a reflection of the low opinion you have of your customers? Is it to say, "Ha, like you need split-screen! You want us to think you have irl friends who game with you? Please!"? Because last I checked, Bungie and more recently 343 Industries have made a little bit of a name for themselves with split-screen co-op as a bedrock feature of their biggest series.

It is unfortunate that the co-op experience that I enjoyed in, say, Halo 4 is not even an option in Dead Space 3, considering that it was an erroneous buying point for me. The lack of split screen tells me you would rather I spend time playing split screen co-op with Halo 4 or other games with the feature and should never bother hoping for the same from one of your titles. I am very, very glad I did not buy DS3 at full price at launch, and I am much less likely to buy one of your products again for anything close to full, new price, if at all.

After the Mass Effect 3 debacle, I lowered my guard because of my thorough enjoyment of Dead Space 1 and 2, but this "little" oversight has certainly shown me the error of my ways.

I will play through campaign, and will enjoy the work Visceral Games put into it, but this lack of split-screen co-op is just another black mark on every game that you have or ever will publish.

Congratulations, by the way. By my count, you've killed a minimum of three franchises in the past two years. First, Mass Effect, SimCity (have you *seen* what SimCity 4 sells for these days? Compare that to the new version. When did 4 come out again?), and  Dead Space.  Sure, you'll publish more, but I do hope your disrespectful lack of consideration for segements of your consumer base is reflected in poor to disaserous sales in the future for any addtional, equally tepid sequels in any of the series. 

Best Regards.

Jon Y. Wong