Video Game Set To Out-Sell Any Movie

The biggest and most anticipated video game of the year has been launched – and it is predicted to beat any box-office blockbuster or music album in sales.

Video Game Set To Out-Sell Any Movie

2:07pm UK, Tuesday November 10, 2009

Hannah Stott, Sky News Online
The biggest and most anticipated video game of the year has been launched – and it is predicted to beat any box-office blockbuster or music album in sales.

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the sequel to one of the most successful first-person shooter titles of all time.

The title, which is touted as one of the most technically and visually impressive video games ever produced, looks set to break international sales records.

The game had a premiere in Leicester Square fit for a blockbuster movie ahead of the global launch in which thousands of retailers around the world opened at midnight especially to sell it.

Call Of Duty features characters voiced by 50 Cent and actor Barry Pepper of Saving Private Ryan.

Taking place five years in the future, the game follows an elite military task force around the globe in their mission to track down a ruthless terrorist threatening world peace.

Standing on the camouflaged carpet at the premiere, Kevin McKidd, who voices the central character of Captain “Soap” McTavish, said the divide between cinema and gaming was shrinking.

“It is quite weird because you expect it – it feels like a movie premiere,” he said.

“These games now are so advanced and so atmospheric it feels like you’re actually in a movie.

“I think that’s the point of this (premiere) in a way, because these games have really taken it to that level now.”

Almost 2,500,000 pre-orders were placed in the US alone – Activision’s highest ever.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has already beaten last year’s UK pre-sales of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV by 50% – and it looks like it will smash that game’s global total as well. – Sky