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Call of Duty is a video game franchise that started 2003 by Ben Chichoski. It is a first-person shooter that simulates combat and wartime battles. The video games take place during World War II, Vietnam and current day. It has went on to become an entertainment phenomenon, with openings that easily dwarf Hollywood blockbuster openings. The last Call of Duty game, called Black Ops set the entertainment record for all media with the largest opening ever with $360M in sales IN ONE DAY. Let's compare other entertainment openings:
Opening day records: Movies, single-day totals
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, $91,071,119
2. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, $72,703,754
3. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, $68,533,840
4. The Dark Knight, $67,165,092
5. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, $62,016,476
6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, $61,684,550
7. Spider-Man 3, $59,841,919
8. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, $58,175,412
9. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, $55,830,600
10. Iron Man 2, $51,239,677
Can you see how huge the series is now?
Let's look at some recent news about Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which hit store shelves today. It's available for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Wii. Prices vary - check with stores for prices and availability.
The regular, console version will run you $59.99. The Hardened edition is $99.99. Good luck finding it.
This. If you get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, you'll likely get something along these lines. Activision sent this to me for review today and it's the Hardened Edition of the game. View the link to see what's inside the box.
The free-for-all user service, called Call of Duty Elite, is buckling hard under the numerous registration for new users. As you may remember, Battlefield 3 also buckled with a huge influx of users.
From 1UP:
Battlefield 3 suffered from a messy launch when the influx of players caused issues for game servers and Origin. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is now facing its own set of issues on launch day -- surprise, surprise -- specifically related to its brand new Call of Duty Elite service.
Elite is free for all users, with an additional premium membership level that you have to pay a yearly fee to access. It apparently wasn't prepared to handle this many people signing up for Elite all at once, although at least the game is still playable and a fix is in the process of being implemented.
"Registration requests for our new live service Call of Duty Elite are exceeding even our most optimistic expectations, which is creating a bottleneck and some players have not been able to register," reads a message from Beachhead Studio boss Chacko Sonny on the service's status page.
M4d Ski11z's take: This game has its own convention. Activision sent out a few copies early to select outlets - while other reviewers were left in the cold, fighting with customers to get a copy of the game if they didn't get a Day One review copy. A truck with copies of the video game JACKED in a daring hijacking. This game is easily the most profitable franchise to date. Even World of Warcraft, another Activision title in their stables, can't compete with Call of Duty. With that said, even though the service is free - with paid, yearly memberships costing $5 a month, Activision, Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Studios should have expected this huge surge of users. They knew with their internal numbers - and seeing their only real competitor, EA's "Battlefield 3" suffering online woes - that online, the main draw of the series, needed to be fit for battle. Not cool, not cool.
So, your friendly neighborhood gamer, Ski11z, called a couple Gamestops and Best Buys - even Targets - to see what the selection of "MW3" game is looking like. Please call stores before burning fuel to get your copy. I am NOT paying for your wild goose chases lol.
Here's a quick smattering of results:
Gamestop: The Woodlands, 1440 Lake Woodlands DR, Ste D
(281) 363-0016
Regular edition: In stock Hardened edition - OUT
Fry's Clear Lake, 21300 Gulf Freeway Frontage Road Webster, TX (281) 338-1762
Regular edition: In stock Hardened Edition: OUT
Target, 2580 Shearn Street, Houston (713) 331-0376
Regular edition: In stock Hardened Edition: OUT
Best Buy - Katy Freeway, 9670 Katy Freeway, Houston (713) 647-6004
Regular edition: In stock Hardened Edition: OUT
Walmart Supercenter, 25108 Market Place Dr, Katy (281) 644-6404
Regular edition: In stock Hardened Edition: OUT BUT they are putting stock on the floor as I type. Call for details.
Best Buy, 2632 Smith Ranch Road, Pearland (713) 436-2488
Regular edition: In stock Hardened Edition: SOLD OUT
GameStop, 6560 Garth RD, Ste 200, Baytown (281) 421-2406
Regular edition: In stock Hardened Edition: OUT
According to an associate at the Baytown Gamestop, they didn't know if any other Gamestops had the Hardened Edition of the game.
Be safe - it's slick out there.
You knew it would happen. Amazon.com, which tracks pretty much everything, has announced that preorders for the game, released today, bested all previous records.
From G4TV:
In the continuing battle between Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and EA's Battlefield 3, CoD: MW3 has come out ahead once more as it claims the title of Amazon's bestselling video game pre-order ever. Amazon released the news, adding that apart from being the most pre-ordered game of all time, MW3 is also amongst the top 20 pre-orders ever on Amazon.com, including their wide variety of books and movies.
Read more: http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/718164/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3-is-amazons-bestselling-video-game-pre-order-ever/#ixzz1d9ICU1gF
M4d Ski11z's take: This game series is so large that Activision doesn't need to ship out review copies period. The game would sell by brand-name alone. When you have thieves jacking trucks to get copies of the game to sell, you have a sure-fire winner on your hands.
Recently, a shipment of games, including 6,000 copies of Modern Warfare 3 was hijacked in a well-thought out and executed robbery.
Here's the skinny:
How coveted is Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3? Enough for thieves to hijack a delivery truck loaded with 6,000 copies of the game, tear gas the inside of the truck and disable the innocent drivers...
UltimatePS3.fr reports that the robbery happened on Saturday morning in south Paris’s Créteil and was performed by two masked thieves.
The total value of the the 6,000 copies of Modern Warfare 3 is reported to be worth about 400,000 Euros. There has yet to be any report on what platform the stolen copies of Modern Warfare 3 were for. They could have been for PS3, Xbox 360 or both.
M4d Ski11z's take: I have to hand it to the thieves. They did something that we only read about or see in the movies. However, they did all of this for a game? It tells you how bad off people are these days - robbing video game shipments to earn money. The games could be sold easily on eBay or via the Internet. Activision should have a level similar to this, no?
Ok, don't get me wrong. I'd love to have one of the BLOPS R/C bomb cars in real life but this is one wicked ride. And since I am an old-skool Jeep man ('97 Jeep Cherokee Country owner) and a new-skool Jeep owner ('07 Jeep Commander), I know a thing or two about Jeeps.
Here is the info about the MW3-styled Jeep.
Continuing what appears to be a fruitful partnership, Jeep and Activision are teaming up on the November 8 release of the new video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which features the 2012 Wrangler. To mark the occasion, Jeep dealers in November will begin selling the 2012 Wrangler Call of Duty: MW3 Special Edition, which will be offered in two-door and Unlimited four-door variants.
Based on the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon model, the Wrangler Call of Duty: MW3 Special Edition can be ordered in black or bright silver, with semi-gloss black Rubicon wheels, a "power dome" hood and special graphics on the front fenders and spare-tire cover.
M4d Ski11z's take: Jeep is on the move. Literally. According to a Consumer Report study, Jeep moved up seven spots to 13, becoming the most reliable domestic brand in the U.S. Partnering with a video game is one of the coolest ideas, though the branding and logos will fade. What would have been epic is having a Rubicon or a Jeep Commander - hint, hint - in the game, in single player or multiplayer.
So, last Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward, the designers of the game, partnered with Monster to create a series of energy drinks. This time around, Mountain Dew has answered the call.
From their press release:
In celebration of the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and Mega XP packaging available exclusively at Walmart, Mountain Dew announced a sweepstakes to reward its Mega Fans with the ultimate mega-gaming experience: a chance to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 with three friends on an iconic, mega-sized stadium screen. From now until November 14th, consumers can enter to win the ultimate "Mega Fan Experience" by visiting the "DEW Mega Fan" tab on the Mountain Dew Facebook page (www.facebook.com/mountaindew) and uploading a picture of the Mtn Dew Mega XP 20-pack, available only at Walmart.
The sweepstakes is part of the DEW and Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc., "Rank Up Your Game with Double XP" promotion where fans will get the opportunity to earn double experience points (Double XP) in Modern Warfare 3 with every purchase of specially marked Mountain Dew products. In addition, fans looking to bank even more double XP time can look for "Mega XP" on specially marked 20-packs of Mountain Dew found exclusively at Walmart. More than 335,000 fans have already registered at DEWXP.com to bank XP time in preparation for the game launch today.
If I get more MW3 flavored news, I'll add it here. Bookmark it.
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It was my first time attending a midnight release at my local GameStop. Talk about one mundane sausage fest. There were over 1,000 of us standing in line for a copy doing nothing but picking our noses for an hour jockeying in position in the line. If I were a GameStop regional manager, I'd be thinking about taking advantage of 1,000 dudes, who have nothing better to do than stand around in line on a school night, waiting to drop $65 and then some, on a game.
LOL. This is funny. I have only been to only one midnight launch and that was for Madden 07 Hall of Fame edition. It wasn't that bad - but I fully understand what you are saying. I love gaming, but I've never been dedicated enough to brave the elements to get a game at midnight. No. I can wait. Just like new games and devices. I don't have to have cutting edge. I can wait. I am missing out on what by waiting? Playing it online with a lot of my friends. That's it. Thanks for your comment.