So, what happened to the good-old split-screen multiplayer that every good game used to have?

Nowadays with an console online multiplayer mode that works well game developers seem to have forgotten that some of us gamers have real life friends, and that many of us actually prefer to play against them rather than playing some stranger online that will do everything to ruin the game and piss everybody off. Or maybe that's their way of forcing everybody to have a copy of their game in order to play multiplayer (which increases their profit), who knows.

Don't get me wrong, I do think online gaming is a great achievement from a technological point of view, it allows us to have larger groups of people in a game session, as well as being able to play against a greater variety of players in terms of skill.

However, I don't think that's an excuse for removing my beloved split-screen multiplayer. And don't give me that stupid HD graphics excuse. We're in the 21st century, the current consoles are very advanced pieces of electronic equipment, they should be able to handle split-screen play with decent graphics at least.
Look at Gran Turismo 5, 2-player split-screen and it looks quite nice. Call of Duty: Black Ops, 4-player split-screen and it looks very nice. BTW, COD:BO is a great example of a well designed multiplayer game: 4-player split-screen (w/ the option to add bots), lan & online multiplayer. In other words, it's got the full multiplayer package with all 3 options available, leaving to the players to choose which mode they like best. TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is an other example of a good multiplayer game, it has got all the multiplayer options mentioned above (this is my favorite shooter BTW).

Now look at the other side, most of the racing games & shooters on PS3 don't have split-screen for some reason. All Need for Speed games, Burnout Paradise, Grid, F1 2010, Dirt 1 & 2, Killzone 2 & 3, Far Cry 2, Bioshock 1 & 2, etc. Some of them have lan & online, some of them are online only. Is there a good reason for leaving split-screen out of those games? I don't think so.
* BTW, I mentioned Dirt 1/2 & F1 2010 but I should give Codemasters a thumbs because they included split-screen in Dirt 3 and they promised they'll include it in F1 2011.

If older consoles like PS2, PS1, DC, N64, etc, can handle split-screen just fine current consoles should be able to.
Again, I'm not saying game developers should go back to the past and simply ditch online multiplayer, all I'm saying is they should give us options; include split-screen, lan & online, the full package. I can guarantee you people will still play online multiplayer even if lan and split-screen are also included, just look at all the people that play GT5 & COD:BO online.

So, just a little rant. If they continue this stupid trend of online only multiplayer I guess I'll have to stick to older games whenever I invite friends over to my place for a gaming party.