Yesterday our very own Tuffcub highlighted the news that Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s single player campaign will apparently only last six or so hours, much the same as the first game. To be perfectly honest, I would be entirely happy with this news if it wasn’t for the fact that the damned game’s so expensive – whilst our friends at Games Basement have managed to get the price down to £43.99 the RRP, set by Activision, is up at £55 which is what the game will likely retail for on the high street.  This makes Modern Warfare 2 one of the most expensive non-import (and non-special edition) games I’ve ever committed to buying.

In times of economic struggle and bad hair, Activision are clearly banking on the Call of Duty name to ensure high sales regardless of the price, and whilst much has already been said about the pricing of the game, which is due on the 10th of November, yesterday was the first time the company has spoken out about the length of the game.  “We try and focus on the experience we’re trying to deliver,” Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling told IGN, “and we really let the story dictate how long the game is.”

You’ll remember that 6 hours is roughly the same as the first game’s length, and I didn’t have a problem with it then because Modern Warfare was a)fresh and b)£40.  I never touched the online portion of the game and don’t intend to do with the sequel because I’ve got a million other things to do and although there’s a new mode that opens up after completion of the single player again that’s a multiplayer mode so I probably won’t be interested.  That leaves, assuming I buy the game for £45, a very rough figure of £7 per hour’s entertainment, and that’s only because online retailers have all managed to discount the game so heavily in the run up to release.

“We never go into development saying ‘We’re going to make a 20 hour game because people want a 20 hour game’ – we want to deliver an intense experience where you walk away and go ‘wow, I want to play more,’” said Bowling, again playing the multiplayer card: “It’s okay for you to want to play more of something – that’s great but jump into the multiplayer and 14 million people have been playing it for two years straight. That’s a long game, no matter how you look at it.”  Can we really judge the ‘length’ of the game by how long the multiplayer is played for?  In my opinion: no.  The single player campaign is reported to last around six hours and that’s what I’m classing as the length of the game.

So, over to you – what do you think about this?