Infinity Ward has scrapped the co-op support for Modern Warfare 2’s main campaign mode, claiming it “really broke” the game’s cinematic experience. Speaking to VG247, communications head Robert Bowling commented, “We did it early on; that’s what Spec Ops started out as, as co-op through story.” As a result, the original co-op mode formed the nucleus of what would later become the Spec Ops feature, allowing players to tackle a number of segments from the main campaign which proved suitable for a two-player experience.

“But it really broke the cinematic experience, took the immersion out of it, out of the story and the pacing and everything we’d spent so long crafting. It just ruined the experience we were aiming for, so we took it out, kept the single-player for that one player intact and polished it.”

“But then there were moments that were really fun with two players, so we took those moments and put them in Spec Ops,” he said.

“So you can play moments directly taken from the single-player, in Spec Ops, but it’s polished towards those two players so the experience is pure. You really get the best of both worlds: you get the moments that were fun, but the moments that were shitty we took out.”

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is due out worldwide on November 10.