So the evening of the hotly anticipated worldwide release for the HUGE new instalment in the Call of Duty franchise has finally arrived. Black Ops is getting a gigantic midnight launch event in London’s Battersea Power Station. The evening is set to be as big if not bigger than last year’s party for Modern Warfare 2, with a whole array of surprise guest stars due to appear.
But what does this title mean to the industry? This game has been steadily building up impossible amounts of excitement in fans from early spring and now Black Ops is hours away from several million MW2 lovers looking at Treyarch’s pitch with hopeful eyes. Game stores are participating in the midnight launch this evening (this morning?) and fans will no doubt be flocking in their hundreds to the various stores all across the UK.
An amusing retail war is lurking alongside this dare I say it….historical event? With supermarkets, electronic stores, online shops, and men in long trench coats battling it out in an unsurprisingly aggressive price war. Many of these retailers are running a range of trade in deals, offering ‘huge discounts’ on Black Ops if gamers hand over their copy of any one of the top selling games in the charts…oh dear. One particular deal stood out however; HMV are saying they will give you Black Ops for £7.99 (roughly $13.00) if you trade in a copy of CoD’s latest rival, Medal Of Honour. We can’t confirm anything, but this could be the influence of Activision trying to swiftly brush aside EA’s reboot of the MOH franchise, perhaps as a result of a very real worry for the publisher.
Most critics (including myself) very much doubt the just released MOH game poses any threat to Call Of Duty’s bite of the gaming market this year, but I think that Activision are watching EA very closely because MOH represented the rebirth of the franchise, not just one game. Activision may be concerned that the next MOH will be shooting it out with CoD on alarmingly more level ground this time next year, and it could potentially hurt their sales.
However if the rumours turn out to be true, then Halo team – Bungie are working on the first full on futuristic sci-fi instalment to Call Of Duty, and then that would leave MOH and EA chasing around after Activision with simply the wrong guns on the wrong battlefield. Regardless of speculation on next year’s games though; we all know you are going to end up buying a copy of Black Ops this year…whether you plan to or not. You might as well just slap the money on the desk right now. Treyarch…Activision…you are about to get even richer.
If you are scratching the walls of your house in uncontrollable excitement, tell us how you feel about this potentially record braking release over on the forums. Or just leave a comment if you are feeling lazy.
Our review for Call Of Duty: Black Ops will be up later this week.
