According to a new report from Cinema Blend, those hoping that Call of Duty: Ghosts single-player campaign will be more satisfying than Battlefield 4’s are in for a bit of disappointment, as it too reportedly clocks in at just about four hours. Cinema Blend cites an unnamed source with “early access to the game” and ran this picture that shows a completed mission select screen (fair warning, there’s a bit of a spoiler on the image).
So why are these AAA shooters cutting down on the campaign length lately? Cinema Blend theorizes that it has something to do with the next-gen systems launching in less than a month, which also have versions of Ghosts on the way. “One could attribute the short campaigns to the fact that many of these big fall titles are cross generational titles and the developers have had to cut corners to get them playable across multiple platforms. ” Another theory is that developers are cutting time off of the campaigns because their audiences is becoming increasingly more interested in multiplayer suites and aren’t even finishing the campaign. In fact, Activision’s data suggests that only 18% of players finished the campaign for the original Black Ops and a simple Google search for “Call of Duty Campaign” has a ton of sites asking why the series even has a campaign anymore.
Still though, the team’s behind the various Call of Duty series seem dedicated to delivering a memorable and action-filled campaign, even if it is shorter. In an interview with Kotaku last year, Treyarch studio chief Mark Lamia said that even though their audiences’ needs are changing, developing a campaign worth playing is still a priority. “We want to create a campaign,” Treyarch studio chief Mark Lamia said. “We have a whole team that’s focused on creating the campaign. It’s what we do. It’s what we want to create. We want to create a campaign, multiplayer and zombies. Those all cater to different emotional states,” he said. “When you’re playing the campaign, you’re sitting down to have that sort of epic and cinematic experience, right? You want to have that first-person role in that experience. But multiplayer is all about that competitive and social experience.”
Call of Duty: Ghosts releases tomorrow for all major platforms and will be available at launch for both the PS4 and The Xbox One. We’ll have full reviews. We’ve also reached out to Activision for comment but don’t expect anything until after the game releases in less than 24-hours.
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