Microsoft’s today-released Halo 3: ODST has a relatively short campaign mode (just around six hours), however Bethesda Softwork’s Ashley Cheng has stepped out in Microsoft’s defense.

“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.

Cheng believes that Microsoft simply took the wrong approach in marketing the game.

“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…”

Nuff said, Cheng.

Halo ODST [cloud ruler temple]