Defends the five hour campaign length.

Bethesda Production Director Ashley Cheng has defended the length of the Halo 3: ODST campaign, but believes Microsoft has itself to blame for the reviewer/consumer backlash.

Cheng, whose credits include Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, said on his blog:

"Give me a break. First off, most games - especially first person shooters - are anywhere from 5-10 hours. Tops. What makes Halo different from others? You can't just ping Halo ODST for it."

And he firmly believes this is a situation that could have been avoided.

"Microsoft and/or Bungie totally bungled the marketing on this," wrote Cheng. "First saying it was a standalone expansion pack, then coming out and saying wait, no, we're charging full price because - surprise! - we put "more" stuff in it and it's called Halo ODST now, vs it's original title, Halo Recon. Like Microsoft was ever going to sell this for less than full price. It is a new Halo title, it'll sell like hotcakes no matter what.

"Because of the waffling, reviewers are now mentioning that Halo ODST may not be worth the price point, that it should've been cheaper, etc..."

Cheng concluded: "I bet if Microsoft hadn't screwed up the marketing messaging, there would less talk about pricing."

http://www.videogamer.com/news/ms_screwed-up_odst_marketing_says_fallout_3_director.html

_________________________

wow do you agree with this?

I personally think he's being too harsh & its none of his business!

I think he's pretty much on the money. I mean, it doesn't matter in a sense. ODST could be crap and it would sell bucket loads (not saying it is crap, BTW, from the reviews it sounds like more of the same with just enough difference to be, well, different and overall great fun and well made).

But MS should never have announced or implied this would be an expansion. That immediately set up the situation where some (not all) review sites/magazines would go looking for evidence that the title is really a glorified expansion and not worth the money. I agree with him - the idea of a FPS Halo expansion just seems silly. This always seemed destined for a full release and as we can see that is indeed what happened.

Also, publicly shifting stance from an expansion to a full price title does make it look like MS is simply cashing in (again, not saying the are. I'm saying it makes it look like they are).

I don't see why he shouldn't comment on a public matter when everyone else (including you and me BTW) are free too.

It's his opinion, no different from one director commenting on another director's films, or one musician commenting on another.

Who cares!Would you not buy Metal Gear Solid ODST if it would be for 60€?
Fans will buy everything for the game they love.

did people really backlash on this game?
i didn't see any complaints on here really.

and he is wrong there is an FPS that is long its Fallout 70+ hours !!! =O

Harsh, but I agree.

i'm no fan of halo but i have to agree, if MS/bungie or whoever had never made any comments to the effect that this was a budget priced expansion this conversation would never had occurred. just goes to show how important staying on message is.

..you hear that obama? do you hear that?

It's gonna sell around 2.5 million worldwide on launch (from the VGchartz preorder numbers). Don't think it's hurting that much.

it's 40$ in europe so that's not really a full priced game - considering that it have Halo 3 multiplayer and all the dlc you are basically getting all additional stuff for free.

He is absolutely correct in his statements.

Fallout 3 is absolutely no FPS.