Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Message Board older than one year ago

Company spokesperson said it was a corporate decision to break the street date.

Update: Activision shot us an email to point out that "Activision has not given any retailer permission to sell Modern Warfare 2 prior to the Nov. 10 street date. The company fully supports the Nov.10 street date." It seems that a whole mess of folks are breaking street date and selling the game early. If you snagged a copy already, enjoy!Poor, poor GameStop. As the gaming public's anticipation for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 approached critical mass, they faltered in their loyalty, and took their business to small "mom and pop" game retailers who had broken the game's street date. Fortunately for the retail juggernaut, Activision showed compassion for its plight, and agreed to let certain GameStops in a few Northeast states start selling the game before Tuesday in order to help combat these vicious local businesses. We've been receiving tips all morning from folks living in New York and Pennsylvania (and Kotaku reports Ohio as well) stating that they were able to find the game on sale at their local GameStop. If you live in one of those Northeastern states, you might want to go ahead and call your local 'Stop to see if it's one of the stores which was granted special permission. If it is, then you can go straight to hell, you lucky jerk.

Poor, poor GameStop. As the gaming public's anticipation for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 approached critical mass, they faltered in their loyalty, and took their business to small "mom and pop" game retailers who had broken the game's street date. Fortunately for the retail juggernaut, Activision showed compassion for its plight, and agreed to let certain GameStops in a few Northeast states start selling the game before Tuesday in order to help combat these vicious local businesses. We've been receiving tips all morning from folks living in New York and Pennsylvania (and Kotaku reports Ohio as well) stating that they were able to find the game on sale at their local GameStop. If you live in one of those Northeastern states, you might want to go ahead and call your local 'Stop to see if it's one of the stores which was granted special permission. If it is, then you can go straight to hell, you lucky jerk.

While it might be tempting to go straight to Craigslist with those Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 bundles you stole, it turns out that Activision notices exciting, high-profile offers just like your potential customers might. VentureBeat reports that when Activision noticed a listing for one of the bundles last Thursday, the company hired a private investigation firm, IPCyberCrime.com, to track down the seller. When IPCyberCrime found the person behind the sale, the investigator discovered that he was an employee at a retailer, who, with friends, had stolen the bundles to sell on Craigslist. The sellers were turned over to the store's loss prevention department. That bust led to one of the prospective buyers, named Christian Del Amo, who was raising money on a forum to buy the bundle (allegedly) for the purpose of copying the game and selling the copies, along with other pirated games, on hard drives. IPCyberCrime turned that case over to the Miami-Dade Police Department, who arrested Del Amo. Obviously, this demonstrates one reason (aside from the whole morality thing) why you shouldn't try to make a business of selling pirated games. Activision has enough money to hire a private investigator, and is not afraid to use it.

Inclusion of Valve's Steam software not sitting well with competitors.

We pull the curtain back on Modern Warfare's co-op Bomb Squad mission.

We pull the curtain back on Modern Warfare's co-op Bomb Squad mission.

Did you score a legit copy?

We pull the curtain back on Modern Warfare's co-op Bomb Squad mission.

Publisher wants to 'improve the consumer experience.'

Three new must-see images.

Photoshop trickster tries to pull a fast one.

For some reason, Activision is intent on blowing cash on Modern Warfare 2 advertisements, despite record pre-order numbers, and anticipated record-breaking sales. At this point, tossing out slick television commercials - like the one you see above, showing some more fightin' on American soil - just seems like kicking everyone's wallets while they're down. We've already got the game pre-ordered! We can't pre-order it anymore! Uncle!

The first-person phenomenon returns.

Activision blows the lid off Modern Warfare 2's single player campaign. Check out the jaw-dropping trailer here.

Are your Avatars ill-equipped to raid a terrorist safe house? Well, good news: Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling (aka fourzerotwo) revealed Modern Warfare 2 gear will soon be available for players to purchase on Xbox Live's Avatar Marketplace.Revealed in a recent Tweet, Bowling stated that Infinity Ward will upload the content to Xbox Live tomorrow -- which includes the Ghost outfit pictured above. In an email to Joystiq, Bowling confirmed the content will be made available for purchase tomorrow. Until then, we'll sleep soundly knowing that the Avatar world will soon be safe from terrorist scum.[Thanks, B. Marriner]

Take a look back at the history of Infinity Ward's media hype machine.

Grand Forks, North Dakota is a small city with a population just over 51,000 -- a large portion of which are students at the University of North Dakota -- that's tucked within a much larger rural portion of the state. It's not the first city to come to mind when you think of prestigious national honors in the technology sector. However, according to online retailer Amazon, which has been vigilantly tracking the geographic location of Modern Warfare 2 pre-orderers, it's currently the Call of Duty-est town in America. Amazon will continue to rank American cities based on per capita Modern Warfare 2 pre-orders until the game is released, and has agreed to ship a $5,000 gift card to a charity of its choosing which serves the winning town. We hope Grand Forks manages to hold its top position in the rankings, if only because it desperately needs something to put on its city limits signs. You know, something more inspiring than "Welcome to Grand Forks: We've Got a Pretty Good College, Here, We Guess."

The developer takes you on a tour of several levels with all-new footage.

The developer takes you on a tour of several levels with all-new footage.

During an interview with Develop, Infinity Ward's front-line man, Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling, recalled the early planning stages of Modern Warfare 2. Unsurprisingly, publisher and owner Activision was eager to pour money into the development of the COD4 sequel, following the basic business formula: more money = better product = more sales = more money. Infinity Ward followed another school of thought: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." "Much like we don't let ourselves get distracted by hype, if you have excess you feel like you should use excess," Bowling said. Even though Activision "estimated out a ridiculous budget" early on, Infinity Ward "didn't let the budget affect [its] mentality." Since Infinity Ward apparently didn't take the money (or, at least, all of it), we do have a pretty good idea of what Activision spent it on: night-vision goggles for everyone!

Retailer GameStop says this will be the highest selling game in its history.

Some may have been up in arms about arguably disturbing material and unarguably juvenile advertising in and for Modern Warfare 2, but it doesn't seem to be showing any signs of stifling anticipation for the game. In fact, GameStop told Game Hunters that Infinity Ward's baby is the most pre-ordered title in the company's history. Like ... ever. GameStop VP Tony Bartel told the site, "As of today, the number of pre-order reservations we've taken for the game is the highest for any title we've ever sold in our 6,200 store network." So feel free to grouse all you want, but unless Activision replaces the FPS gameplay with first-person putting puppies into a wood chipper and renames it Osama bin Laden Pushes Jesus Christ Down a Flight of Stairs Made of Baby Skulls, we're not sure there's any amount of controversy that's going to slow Modern Warfare 2 down.

If rumors circulating around NeoGAF prove true, Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward won't be allowing the use of the Xbox 360's party chat feature during ranked multiplayer playlists in its upcoming title. Since a distinction in the post is made between different styles of online matches (ranked and social), we presume the function will not be utilized throughout all of Modern Warfare 2's online playlists.Speaking with Joystiq, Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling said the company "can't comment on leaks," and was unable to confirm if the feature will, in fact, be disabled. "Players should reserve judgment until they get a chance to experience it for themselves on November 10 instead of viewing it out of context," Bowling added. Have an opinion on the matter? Sound off in the comments. [Image Source: BL4CK HAWK 8]

Just how many millions of copies will the hype machine move?

Just how many millions of copies will the hype machine move?

'Fight Against Grenade Spam' message goes just a little too far.

IGN readers respond to graphic video released earlier this week.

Classification board asked to review its 15+ rating due to terrorist content

GameStop would like to rent you a copy of Modern Warfare 2, it seems, as the company has revealed a trade-in plan for the standard and Hardened editions of the game. If you pre-order the game through GameStop's site, you''ll be eligible to get $40 back should you trade it in before December 13. GameStop will email pre-orderers a coupon on November 15 to that effect, which will only work for trade-ins on the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. Considering this "deal" also applies to the Hardened edition, we have to wonder how the company will handle the included Call of Duty Classic. We've contacted GameStop for some additional info on that and will relay what we hear back. [Thanks, Marques!]