2,000 UK shops will be open for Call of Duty: Black Ops II’s midnight launch

One online indie may have broken the street date, but that will do little to dampen Monday’s excitement for the Call of Duty midnight launch.

Around 2,000 UK shops are to be open from midnight on Monday to celebrate Black Ops II officially going on sale.

It’s the ‘greatest ever number of stores due to open their doors for the launch of any Call of Duty title to date’ says Activision and comes courtesy of ‘unprecedented support from retail partners’.

Activision says that over 6,500 UK outlets will be selling the game from 12am Tuesday, November 13th – which only fuels the publisher’s claim that the game will be "one of the biggest entertainment launches of the year".

Launch excitement is already in full swing. The game will inevitably be No.1 in a week’s time, but UK bookies say the game is likely to be Christmas No.1.

Meanwhile, one plucky customer seems to have started queuing early at HMV.

GAME says it will have 300 stores open. Blockbuster will have 400 stores open – as too will Tesco.

Activision has even launched a pre-release hands on event, Black Ops II Live in London.

In the official announcement detailing the wide-reaching launch action, UK & Ireland MD at Activision Blizzard Peter Hepworth commented: We are thrilled with the support we have already received from both our retail partners and fans alike and are looking forward to watching it to continue to unfold over the next few days.”

Click here to read our analysis of Black Ops II’s potential performance, including historical data and further comment from Hepworth.