12 gameplay hours may seem to be short by today's standards, but Splinter Cell: Conviction creative director Maxime Beland believes that it is just about right.
"I want people to play my games and finish them," Beland told the Official Xbox Magazine.
"We're going to ship with difficulty levels, at least a normal mode and realistic mode - like we did on Rainbow Six Vegas. And realistic is going to be really f**king hard - you're going to need stealth, two bullets is going to kill you, the enemies are going to be super-lethal."
Normal mode, however, will be "for normal gamers, that are going to spend 12 hours playing our game and not 30 because they're dying all the time."
Splinter Cell: Conviction will also feature a solid multiplayer mode, so don't worry about getting your money's worth of gameplay time.