IW dropped Modern Warfare 2 Campaign co-op as it "ruined the experience"

Infinity Ward's Rob Bowling's revealed to VG247 that Modern Warfare 2 was initially supposed to have full co-op in the its main Campaign, but was dropped as it "ruined the experience" the developer was aiming for.

The final game instead has Spec Ops mode - a dedicated, mission-based co-op section playable either online or locally in split-screen.

"We did it early on; that's what Spec Ops started out as, as co-op through story," said Bowling when asked why Campaign co-op didn't make the final game.

"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."

Spec Ops was born from the good parts of the ditched co-op mode, Bowling said.

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

"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."

We just played a Brazilian Spec Ops level with Rob at a London hotel: it's awesome. We'll knock up some impressions tomorrow.

Modern Warfare 2 ships on November 10.