Infinity Ward has confirmed that Modern Warfare 2 co-op will be limited to two players, and will not be linked with the story campaign at all.
"Two player seemed to be the magic number for co-op. That's when it stayed really fun and intense without becoming a clusterf*** of things.
We just found that two-players was the most fun," community manager Robert Bowling explained to
VideoGamer.
"We don't do co-op in our story because we're crafting a very specific experience and we don't want to ruin that by cramming co-op into it. We take the moments that work really well with co-op, we bring them out and we put them in Special Ops."
Previous instalment Call of Duty: World at War had co-op for four people, both during the campaign and as part of a bonus Zombie Mode.
Special Ops for Bowling and Modern Warfare 2, however, is about "playing over and over again, trying to get a better time".
"It's about challenging a friend," he said.
Modern Warfare 2 launches for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on 10th November.