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Modern Warfare 2 street date broken
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 9th November 2009
The street date for Modern Warfare 2 has been broken by some retailers, though that won't help PC gamers.
LoveFilm and The Hut were the first to break the street date by the looks of things, with both stores mailing out copies to consumers as early as last Friday. The game is actually supposed to launch tomorrow, with many stores holding midnight openings for the title.
The Hut, which is also the dispatcher for LoveFilm, admitted to breaking the release date in the UK as part of an effort to circumvent the on-going postal strikes in the UK.
"We are dedicated to getting products to customers on release," a spokesperson told GI.biz. "We use Royal Mail as our preferred courier and were advised to dispatch on Thursday for delivery on Tuesday due to the impending strike action. This was called off on Thursday evening and we have contacted Royal Mail to hold the product until Tuesday."
The action set a precedent however and many consumers have reported being able to get copies of the game in high street stores across the world.
US games retailer GameStop confessed that it had deliberately broken the street date in some specific locations as part of an effort to protect customers in places where the game was already on sale ahead of schedule.
"Our decision followed many conversations with Activision and was an effort to protect our customer base," a GameStop rep told Kotaku
Late last week GAME in the UK sent out notices to customers saying that the title had been shipped early, but a later statement claimed that this was nothing more than an error with an automated notice system and that copies had not actually been shipped. HMV, who will be hosting the official launch at a London store tonight (and we'll be there), also issued a similar statement.
None of this will help PC gamers who get their copies early though, as Activision is using IWNet and the Steamworks functionality built into the game to prevent PC gamers from playing the game until the official release.
"If you bought a retail copy on PC, you can play it on 10.11.09," said Infinity Ward's Rob Bowling on his Twitter page.
A pricing war has since broken out on the game too, with Sainsbury's and HMV leading the way according to MCV. The cheapest you can get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for at the moment is either £26 from Sainsbury's or £9.99 from HMV - provided you trade in Froza 3, Tekken 6 or Uncharted 2. So much for a £55 retail price, eh?
Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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That's funny, because the Steam page for MW2 says it won't unlock until the 12th of November (currently 2 days and 13 hours away).
Steam isn't the same as a retail copy.
Er, I thought that was the whole idea of using the Steam integration for the PC version - a normal retail copy behaves exactly the same as a Steam purchase.
If you bought the game THROUGH STEAM then you can't play until the 12th, which is when Steam unlocks THOSE copies.
It's part of Activision's sneaky system to funnel people towards buying the game at higher prices on the high street.
Mate across from me in my office has already completed Single Player on PS3.
there was more detail on this on joystiq, cant see it at work. independant game shops were selling it before release to beat gamestop, gamestop were thne allowed by IW/Acti to sell it early in some areas that were effected.
ofcourse we couldnt let them outdo gamestop
Multi player's going to be an epic fail anyway so why bother
It'll take the best part of a year for it to reach such a low price again (COD4 still commands a high price)... why wait when you can have it tomorrow?!
It probably has to release dates, one for the US and one for the rest of the world, happened to me with Borderlands and Dragon Age
It's not really their fault now, is it?
Gamestation, trade in 2 games from a selection and get MW2 for £4.99....
A pretty damn good deal if you ask me :P
Of course, it rarely takes 1st class post 2 days, that's why I get most of my games a day early.
Really? You don't think that the devs are working in conjunction with the publishers?
Do not buy this game if you have not already. There are better games out there, like Shattered Horizon (which is taking PC gaming by storm).
Yours in just say no to moronic corporate decisions,
Star¤Dagger
Yes we have a problem with the royal mail and there insuring that the game is dispatched on time.
But there is the fact that there could be more prevention by Microsoft and Sony, in the same way the devs and publishers have done for the PC format. that being the game is unplayable until day dot.
That is a near impossible task.
Unfortunately with buying online and shipping and the postal service there are now no guarantees.
Stores have to stick stringently to the release dates, else they will be facing a hefty fine, and the assistant who sold the game can be fined and even face being taken to court (a possible jail sentence).....
Without these rules facing the online market, i mean it's pretty impossible to police since they can claim an early release was due to the want for the game to arrive exactly on time, and the postal service 'accidentally' delivered it early, things like this will happen again and again, and it will be the stores that suffer.
In the end, what does it really matter?
ok.. i realize that is required for MP, but SP as as well?
Know of at least two cases here. They are really annoyed to have to wait for Steam authorization to play the sp part.
With all the hype around the game, wouldnt be surprised that it seels better than CoD4 in PC.
MW2-Steam is 59,99/£53.78
MW2-OnlineRetail is 36.80/£32.99
Steam is ~63% more expensive.
Last time I even bother with sainsburys for games....screw em.....
I know posting this I'm being a hypocrite, but I mean c'mon. If you don't like the game, fair enough, stop spouting out about why you hate the game. This article isn't about your hatred of MW2. It's about some retailers breaking the street date.
I agree with sui_winbolo. You guys bitch too much, its just a friggin game and IW doesn't owe you anything. Also, the game will obviously be one of the best-sellers of all time - including PC probably. So no matter what, IW has already "won". Whatever that means.
Frankly, I'm happy as long as I get to see the white house nuked, play a terrorist and shoot some russians. Gaming is my hobby, so I'm easily satisfied. Just my 2C, you may now continue whining.