2,000 midnight MW2 launches

Over 2,000 UK stores held a midnight launch for Activision Blizzard’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 last night.

The game’s debut saw more midnight openings than any title before it. GAME and Gamestation arranged for six hundred stores nationwide to open their doors as the launch day began, while HMV held similar events at 60 per cent of own outlets.

We’ve taken record pre-orders for Modern Warfare 2, and it looks like it’ll become one of history’s iconic games,” said GAME’s commercial and supply chain director Tricia Brennan.

Excitement among our customers is unprecedented and reached fever pitch in the hurs before launch. The release of such a major video game is a huge global event on the scale of Harry Potter books or the Lord Of The Rings films. Everyone at GAME has been planning for motnhs to make sure we have everything our customers need.”

HMV’s head of games Tim Ellis added: HMV fully expects Modern Warfare 2 to be the biggest entertainment release of all time. Our pre-orders exceeded any other title previously released and, to cater for this demand, 60 per cent of our stores opened at midnight. Quite rightly, we’ve all be hugely energised by this game and are confident it will smash all previous UK sales records.”