Monday night saw the games industry's annual occupation of the focal point of pop culture: the launch of a new Call of Duty game, this time subtitled Modern Warfare 3.
Following a celebrity-studded launch party at London's Old Billingsgate Market, featuring a PA from chart-topping rapper Example, 574 Game and Gamestation stores across the country opened specially to sell the first copies of Modern Warfare 3 to punters queuing outside.
They could find themselves participants in a new world record: last year's Call of Duty game, Black Ops, set an entertainment-industry record for most revenue generated in its opening five days, bringing in a staggering $650m (£405m). Publisher Activision says that it has taken more pre-orders for Modern Warfare 3 than for Black Ops, and the previous record – a mere $550m over five days – was held by, you guessed it, 2009's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
The secret to the success of the Call of Duty games – so-called first-person shooters – is two-pronged. When played solo, they provide a cinematic spectacle, studded with explosions, exotic settings and nerve-wracking cliffhangers. But the experience they offer online, when played with or against other humans, is so compelling that they dominate all other games.
In the year since Black Ops launched, people have spent more than 2.6bn hours playing it via online services such as Microsoft's Xbox Live and Sony's PlayStation Network. Worldwide, on average, more than 19 million people play a Call of Duty game online every month, and 6.5 million each day.
Activision has had to work hard to ensure Modern Warfare 3 will continue the Call of Duty legend. In March 2010, Vince Zampella and Jason West, co-founders of Infinity Ward, the developer that makes the Modern Warfare games every two years – developer Treyarch takes up the Call of Duty reins in alternate years – left the firm, taking many staff with them.
They set up a new developer called Respawn under the wing of publisher Electronic Arts, Activision's biggest rival. Infinity Ward regrouped, though, teamed up with another developer, Sledgehammer, which was given responsibility for the online side of Modern Warfare 3, and pulled out the stops to create a game which easily meets the franchise's exacting standards – despite the fact that gamers have always considered Infinity Ward's games superior to those crafted by Treyarch.
Although Modern Warfare 3 looks like setting a new opening five-day revenue record, it is not certain whether it will outsell Black Ops in the long-term.
Nick Parker, director of analyst Parker Consulting, said: "No doubt, even in the current financial climate, Modern Warfare 3's sales will be phenomenal, but this year there is more sales competition from games such as Battlefield 3. The shape of Modern Warfare 3's sales curve could be different to that of Black Ops."
Battlefield 3, published by Electronic Arts, tops the games charts and will be the most testing competition Call of Duty has had for years. But Modern Warfare 3 will inevitably outsell it by a considerable margin: the seven existing iterations of the game have sold a combined 100m units worldwide.
Activision, recognising Call of Duty as its key intellectual property, has not been shy when it comes to throwing resources at it. More than 200 people spent two years making Modern Warfare 3, and the publisher has splashed out on TV ads running around Champions League and Premier League football matches as well as The X Factor, and a massive billboard and poster campaign.
It has worked hard to refresh the online part of the game, in particular, for example by introducing a subscription service to augment Modern Warfare 3 and future games titled Call of Duty: Elite, which offers perks and rewards for committed players, integrates their gameplay with social media and makes it easier for them to play as "clans".
If Modern Warfare 3 pulls in more than $650m in the next five days, and hence carves out its niche as a record-breaking entertainment franchise, that work will have been more than worthwhile.
