I’d just as soon call this the death of co-op games. How many can be played without an internet connection? Split-screen, LAN, direct IP connections, and private servers are super rare now, and it sucks. Plenty of games in that chart from 2018 might not even be playable anymore, and plenty more can go down when Steam servers are down for maintenance or will be unplayable when you’re on a train or some other location without internet access.
Split-screen is an instabuy for me, I wish it was more popular among devs.
What pisses me off is when split screen exist for console but not PC (looking at you Terraria and Don’t Starve Together)
Is it just me or is PvE distinct from co-op?
Helldivers is PvE
Baldurs gate is co-op
These are very different categories and experiences.
But what’s the distinction? I’m not saying there isn’t but I would put those two examples as pve/coop and their difference comes from the fact that they’re in very different genres.
Imo coop is more similar to a single player game that you can play with other people. Baldurs gate is a rpg that you happen to be able to play with other people.
Another example would be deadspace 3.
Most PvE games on the other hand are not primarily story driven. Helldivers, deep rock galactic and such.
Something like left4dead covers both because its PvE but it also has a story.
Then games like palworld are more like survival MMOs. Coop in these games is more of an emergent gameplay, while in other coop games its essentially forced.
I don’t like putting these games together because story driven coop games are pretty rare, but PvE games don’t seem to be as rare.