EA reckons the Medal of Honor single-player campaign "can range from 5-15 hours"

EA this week pulled from its own website its claim that Medal of Honor: Warfighter's single-player campaign is 10 hours long.

As late as Tuesday 23rd October 2012, the day the game launched in the US, EA.com's Medal of Honor: Warfighter FAQ claimed the single-player was "roughly 10 hours".

Here's what the FAQ said:

"Approximately how long is the single player campaign?"

"The single-player campaign will consist of roughly 10 hours of action ripped straight from the headlines and missions of Tier 1 Operators from around the globe with 12 full-missions each taking place in a different "hotspot" of the world."

This question and answer was removed from the FAQ a day later, but remains in Google cache form. And we snapped an image just in case.

So, how long is Medal of Honor's single-player campaign?

EA provided Eurogamer with the following statement: "Based on internal play-tests and depending on player skill level, the single-player game can range from five to 15 hours. The number mentioned in the FAQ was a medium representing cross section of players with varied skill levels."

Eurogamer reviewer Dan Whitehead told me it took him about six hours to finish the game on normal difficulty - significantly short of EA's now-removed assessment.

Warfighter's initial reviews suggest the game has fallen far short of the quality many had hoped for. At the time of publication the Xbox 360 version sits on a Metascore of 49 out of 100.

It's a great game. It's a great studio. It's a great franchise. The genre continues to be hot. We built great multiplayer

EA COO Peter Moore

Now analysts are questioning its potential success. Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter said the game "will succeed or fail based on its review scores, which are horrible so far".

"Reviews below its predecessor (74 on Metacritic) could result in downside risk to our Q3:13 sell-in estimate of 5.7 million units,2 he continued. Doug Creutz believes "street expectations for MoH:W sales have moderated significantly, likely down to the 3-4MM unit range". He added: "We are concerned that those expectations may still be too high. Based on our read of pre-release tracking data, we think the game might struggle to sell through 2MM units worldwide."

For its part, EA stands by the Danger Close-developed military shooter, which goes up against Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 this Chirstmas. EA COO Peter Moore told Eurogamer this week: "It's a great game. It's a great studio. It's a great franchise. The genre continues to be hot. We built great multiplayer."

But he declined to specify how many copies EA expects the game to sell. "My expectations are it will sell well," he told Eurogamer.