Street date struggle for Modern Warfare 2

Though UK entertainment chains seem to be holding firm, retailer GameStop has admitted that it knowingly broke the street date and sold Modern Warfare 2 early at some of its North American branches over the weekend.

GameStop made the decision to break street date and sell reserved copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in select markets where other retailers had broken street date,” VP of communications Chris Olivera told Kotaku.

Our decision followed many conversations with Activision and was an effort to protect our customer base.”

In addition, a number of UK indies were offering the game for sale over the weekend. Guardian journalist and TV presenter Charlie Brooker spoke of his surprise at being to obtain the game so easily on Saturday via Twitter.

There were also reports of one high-profile London indie selling copies of the game to eager consumers for a whopping 75 on Saturday.

However, when bullied by MCV over the weekend staff at North London branches of GAME, Gamestation of HMV were completely unwilling to sell early copies, with Gamestation staff in particular explaining the great lengths HQ has gone to ensure that staff have no early access to the game.