New MW3 gameplay during England game

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 7 October, 2011

Rooney still ready to play.

World exclusive gameplay of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will premiere at half time during the Montenegro vs. England European Championship qualifier tonight.

The single-player trailer goes live at 9pm UK time on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 1 HD.

After the footage is shown here it will be sent out to the rest of the world for global consumption.

The TV spot is part of Activision's huge marketing push in the run up to the game's November launch.

This year both Activision and EA will spend millions of dollars promoting their first-person shooter behemoths Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3.

In April EA boss John Riccitiello said the marketing battle will cost the games' respective publishers around $200 million.

"[Battlefield 3] is going up against the next Call of Duty, which is presently the number one game in the industry - a game that last year did $400 million in revenue on day one," he said.

"This game is designed to take that game down. If you're looking for a battle of the titans - Red Sox vs Yankees... Microsoft or Google - and what the tip-off point is for this holiday season, this is it.

"There will be a couple of hundred million dollars of marketing against these two products going head to head. Similar designs - we think we've got the better product - it's going to be a blast."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (47) Latest comment 8 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • RodHull #1 8 months ago

    Overhyped game in the midst of overhyped players. Perfect.

  • bobfish09 #2 8 months ago

    Really? Isn't MW3 identical to MW2, MW1, Blops and everything else they've churned out?

  • thedaveeyres #3 8 months ago

    I'm more excited to see what the multiplayer is like, rather than what I suspect will be cutscenes and cinematics in the ad, but then you can't really blame them for wanting to show the spectacular.

    Hugely looking forward to MW3, and I'm not ashamed to say so. :p

  • FireMonkey #4 8 months ago

    I'm not watching football just to see that.
    Will wait for it to go on-line.

  • Munners #5 8 months ago

    A synergy of mediocrity.

  • ZizouFC #6 8 months ago

    C'mon Montenegro!

  • Wyrm #7 8 months ago

    £200m? lol And I won't be buying either of them :smugface:

  • Master09 #8 8 months ago

    I am a BF fan - BF3 has more hype than MW3.

  • Cjail #9 8 months ago

    It seems that there has been a graphical improvement...though it looks worst than Killzone 2!
    Edited by Cjail at 07/10/11 @ 09:55

  • BloodSaint #10 8 months ago

    Hahaha how ironic to see the Battlefield3 ad b4 the MW3 Trailer.

  • Sodding_Gamer #11 8 months ago

    Perfect place for their fanbase... A football match. Nicely done Activision.

  • LittleRiver #12 8 months ago

    I may not see it... If I am walking around raging.

  • Dr_Cowley #13 8 months ago

    What?! A correlation between the uneducated chavs who play COD and the uneducated chavs who watch ball-kicking?! Never saw this coming

    Edit: I'm being negged? How is that possible? You've a can of stella in one hand and a meat pie in the other, where did this third arm come from?
    Edited by Dr_Cowley at 07/10/11 @ 10:28

  • 00.00.01 #14 8 months ago

    The fact that a MW3 topic, on a Friday, manages to get a poor 13 comments in 2 hours and 15 minutes says it all. The hype is over, the beast is slain.
    And "launching" your biggest ever marketing campaign during fu%$!ng Montenegro-v-England? C'mon Acti, you can do better than that. We all hate, but we all know you can. Some marketeer is laughing his arse off for getting away with this one.

  • ShovelyJoe #15 8 months ago

    My relationship with COD and the English football team is identical - both rarely surprise; both are incredibly frustrating; both frequently fall short of my expectations; but for some god-only-knows reason I love them both.

    So much hate for COD on these forums - condescending diatribes that really only serve to justify stereotypes. Dont forget what games are there for - to have fun. COD, for me, is fun and I am SO looking forward to this latest version coming out.

    If you want to hate, I would hate on BF3. If you want to talk about overhype, I would point a finger at BF3. If you want to talk about a product that fails to deliver, I would talk about BF3. At least you know exactly what your getting with COD and if it is what you are after, you will most certainly get it. The contrast between what was promised and what was demonstrated in that beta was nothing short of embarrassing.

    BF3 = Medal of Honour = Fail

  • DiamondIce #16 8 months ago

    I didn't even know England were playing.

    Back to watching paint dry this evening then.

  • Sir_STRESSHEaD #17 8 months ago

    @bobfish09

    Even if that is the case (which I highly doubt) is that really a bad thing? Don't get me wrong... I play BF, COD, Operation Flashpoint, Rainbow Six... all the military style shooters. I'm not a COD fan boy... but honestly? Those games are amongst the best on offer this gen... period! If people took the time to get their moneys worth out of the games by playing the Spec Ops modes and SP campaigns also instead of jumping straight into MP rage town they might realise this.

    I'm purchasing both MW3 and BF3 and can't wait to get stuck into every aspect of both!

  • Sir_STRESSHEaD #18 8 months ago

    @Dr_Cowley

    Nice bit of stereotyping there... as much as I hate chavs... I feel far more inclined to neg you for being a total bell end!

  • Dave52 #19 8 months ago

    I think MW3 looks good. Sure, it's more of the same, but I know I'll get it for Christmas.

    BF3 first though.

  • Dr_Cowley #20 8 months ago

    @Sir_STRESSHEaD Bollocks, calling COD fans chavs is a time honored tradition on EG, the problem is I called football fans chavs which is a no no cos well you know, they are but they are in denial.

    Pro-Tip: The year is 2011, watching a centuries old game that involves kicking a ball into a hole 200 times bigger than it 2 0r 3 times in the space of 90 minutes does not equate skill. People watch it cos they need to be racists, not over skin colour but T-Shirt colour and people who have different postcodes

  • Architect_z #21 8 months ago

    Call of Rooney

  • Jonny5Alive7 #22 8 months ago

    I'm going to get BF3 on the PC and MW on the consoles, best of both worlds. Regardless of the hype I know I'll get addicted to COD multiplayer like I always do, then overplay it and not go back until next year.

  • darkmorgado #23 8 months ago

    Perfect place for their fanbase... A football match. Nicely done Activision.

    A bunch of fat morons cheering on a team of thick morons with trophy wives and squabbling over whose little group of thick morons is best and failing to appreaciate the irony in the fact they are massively homophobic but don't see the fucking blatant homoeroticism staring them in the face?

    Seems like the perfect fit for the COD crowd to me.

  • geeza2020 #24 8 months ago

    ShovelyJoe- I dont know if you read the article but both games have a £200 million dollar marketing budget, so you saying one is overhyped and the other is not is a little bit strange. They both have their respective publishers pushing their corporate marketing crap at full tilt, just ignore all that shit and enjoy the games.


    Cowley - I take it you were the kid that always got picked last in the school lunch time football matches. Bad luck chum, but football is actually quite an enjoyable game. Again, mch like having to ignore the marketing bullshit with CoD and BF, you need to ignore all the bullshit in football and just enjoy the game. If you cant, or just wont do that for whatever silly, petty reason, then I fell sorry for you. Get over it.

  • ShovelyJoe #25 8 months ago

    @Dr Cowley

    With all respect sir, the more you write, the more you make a total fool of yourself. Your latest criticism of football, ie teams and different postcodes, etc, is a criticism you could level at any team sport that is followed and supported.

    If you don't like football, that's absolutely fine, but to dismiss everyone that does as some kind of ignorant buffoon reveals something seriously flawed about yourself more than anything else.

    Cheer up sunshine, its Friday : )

  • ShovelyJoe #26 8 months ago

    @Geeza

    By overhyped I meant oversold. The goliath marketing budgets for both are staggering and part of me wishes the money could be put to better use. My point was that whilst with CoD we get what we see, my impression after the beta of BF is that we wont get what we are being pitched. And I am pretty sure I used to steal Dr_Cowley's lunch money : )

  • darkmorgado #27 8 months ago

    The goliath marketing budgets for both are staggering and part of me wishes the money could be put to better use.

    Like paying fucking obscene amounts of money to people who kick a ball around when people who actually do something worthwhile to humanity earn a mere fraction?

  • geeza2020 #28 8 months ago

    And give him wedgies before locking him in his own locker, yeah I think I knew him too!

  • Uncompetative #29 8 months ago

    Review Crysis for XBLA.

    No?

    ...ok...I will...Utterly fantastic. The best campaign I have played since Halo and as much fun as Goldeneye 007. No multiplayer and takes an eternity to download (~4GB), but I am overjoyed with it. I was depressed by the miserable gameplay of Battlefield 3 and had cancelled my much anticipated pre-order, but EA got some of my money back on this gem thanks to the efforts of Cevat Yerli.

    Sure, high-end PCs will make it look even more gorgeous - but I wasn't expecting that the gameplay would be so addictive. I have played this for hours late into the night and this must rank within my personal top 10 games of all time. The only negative that I can think of is that the jeeps have hyper-sensitive steering which cannot be independently adjusted. Weird really, because Crytek got this more or less right in Far Cry: Instincts.

    Anyone who is in any doubt about getting this game, maybe thinking that the lack of reviews bodes ill for its quality should be reassured. Hopefully, they will do Crysis Warhead next and we'll get a decent multiplayer conquest mode without all the cheating that spoilt the PC version. Hopefully, Ben Kuchera will review it (again) as it is pretty remarkable what they have achieved.
    Edited by Uncompetative at 07/10/11 @ 11:22

  • darkmorgado #30 8 months ago

    Erm, wrong thread?

  • ShovelyJoe #31 8 months ago

    @darkmorgado

    I couldn't agree with you more. But the fact that football has been turned into a business rather than a sport doesn't change the fact that I love football and enjoy following my team and England; I hate McDonalds but there is definitely a time and a place for a BigMac meal; I hate Nike's use of child labour but adore my Jordans; life is filled with contradictions and dichotomies but I somehow manage to make it to the end of the day.

    What I despise more than anything, more so than the money wasted on footballers and marketing campaigns for games, is people that make assumptions about others based on their own misguided stereotypes and act like they are intellectually superior with absolutely no basis for doing so. Wouldn't you agree?

  • bobfish09 #32 8 months ago

    @Sir_STRESSHEaD

    Nope, not necessarily a bad thing, just poking fun at it showing new stuff, when it feels like the same old thing :)

  • geeza2020 #33 8 months ago

    "What I despise more than anything, more so than the money wasted on footballers and marketing campaigns for games, is people that make assumptions about others based on their own misguided stereotypes and act like they are intellectually superior with absolutely no basis for doing so. Wouldn't you agree? "

    QFT

  • Nephirion #34 8 months ago

    Cost of marketing $200 mil, Cost of making the game $500K ...

  • darkmorgado #35 8 months ago

    @Nephiron

    They actually spend money making that trainwreck of a game series?

    Fuffing hell.

  • kassmageant #36 8 months ago

    new MW gameplay - funny, why does it look completely the same, then?

    i lately checked back call of duty 2 to see if my new netbook will run it, and in settings i found out it had option to scale graphics back to directX 7 mode - i honestly believe it would be possible with ALL CoD games since - even wii version of blops was THE SAME game with worse graphics - what does it say about CoD? that aside from epic-exlposion-set-pieces it's core gameplay is SO bare-bones ancient that it is pretty pathetic, actually. they can be enjoyable games, sure, but me personally, i want little more from full retail experience ( and so i went back to my cave, waiting for 11 november)
    Edited by kassmageant at 07/10/11 @ 12:02

  • Sir_STRESSHEaD #37 8 months ago

    @kassmageant

    The core gameplay of COD is FUN.

    Easy to pick up, easy to play, easy to enjoy... not so easy to dominate unless you're a freak with no life. Yes I mean YOU x Pro Snipezzzzzz x

    Why fuck with a winning formula? you may think that it looks just like other COD games but to be honest MW2 still kicks the shit out of alot of games coming out today in the looks department.

    It just makes me laugh when people throw rocks at the call of duty franchise when it is a benchmark in quality and give people countless months of non stop entertainment! WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG???

  • eminusx #38 8 months ago

    a mass of hype and marketing that promises so much and inevitably delivers . . . yip, more of the same, more opportunities to bleed you dry, more dead horses to flog. . . it could be either football or the latest fps shoot-out! It was really good for a while but it feels so tired now.

    Sadly now, Football is an over-exposed joke, plagued by its crippling obsession with money, bad-sportsmanship and play-acted by over-paid brainless, amoral cavemen. Unfortunately for actual sports fans, it has proven a great opportunity for mindless scum to parade their homophobic, racist or amazingly, geographically predjudiced hatred. Some of this sounds very familiar and is exactly the sort of shit ive heard on xbox live MP in the past, having had individuals record abusive audio messages because i ended their killstreak. . . amazing, especially if you have a 5 year old son sat beside you the first time you listen to your messages, nice.

    both are a matter of opinion, but the overriding stench of money and the utter fucking plebs they attract just push me away from both.
    Edited by eminusx at 07/10/11 @ 12:18

  • kassmageant #39 8 months ago

    @Sir_STRESSHEaD

    months of enterteinment, sure, because of multiplayer - how many people still play campaign? i played it, and honestly i don't remember any details about it - order of levels? plot? anything else than the fact i shoot thousands of people in the face?

    MW 1 had it right, chernobyl and KIA by nuke were spectacular, but then they started to copy/paste these to the point it became ridiculously retarded

    PS. ok, line " RAMIREZ, DEFEND THE BURGER TOWN" was fucking awesome. but it just proves that these series became pastiche, and sad thing is, it want us to take it seriously
    Edited by kassmageant at 07/10/11 @ 12:36

  • Jacksie66 #40 8 months ago

    I'll be watching the Ireland match instead...

  • follioe23 #41 8 months ago

    @ShovelyJoe - I'm with you (Love Football, Love my Jordans, Love COD, and I'm looking forward to BF3, despite the beta).

  • priesty_lfc #42 8 months ago

    Yes because seeing a CoD advert at half time during a football match a month before it's due out is sooo bad.

    Unlike BF, who have been posting adverts/posters/going on talk shows for the last 3 months and it's still another 3 weeks before it actually comes out.

    There's only going to be one winner here and it's not BF.

    Roll on Tuesday the 8th XD

  • ShovelyJoe #43 8 months ago

    @eminusx

    What's even more concerning is you concept of parenting. You have a five year old son - turn your xbox off and go to the park ffs!!!!!

  • eminusx #44 8 months ago

    haha

    i dont HAVE a 5 year old son, i said IF. . . . it was a cheap shot at adding gravitas and drama to my point. .

    you are right tho!!

  • ShovelyJoe #45 8 months ago

    phew...So I guess you wont be watching the game later ; )

  • KorpusDraige #46 8 months ago

    Ok, I always see bad comments against Modern Warfare 3 and it's ALWAYS the same thing, "MW3 is the same as the others." I was skeptical on which one to get, BF3 or MW3. After playing the beta of BF3- I don't understand the BF3 camp's argument? What exactly is different in BF3 than other FPSs? It played like a generic FPS to me, with COD-like leveling. I understand what I played was "just a beta", but the final game isn't going to change how the gameplay is. BF3 was one of the worst camp-heavy games I have ever played and don't give me that "Would you run out in the battlefield in real life?" crap, because this isn't real life, it's a video game and video games are meant to be fun. I couldn't care less for Battlefield's vehicle combat- as I couldn't care less for Halo's vehicle combat. I'm not into vehicle combat. BF3's "Rush Mode" was basically just "Headquarters" in COD. Modern Warfare 3 demonstrated what is different from this version compared to the previous ones and there are differences, from the leveling of weapons to the killstreaks to the survival mode. What is different in Battlefield 3 compared to other FPSs? I can't think of one.
    Edited by KorpusDraige at 07/10/11 @ 17:18

  • Jonny5Alive7 #47 8 months ago

    Can't beat a bit of Captain Price!