UK Modern Warfare 3 midnight launches

By Robert Purchese Published 4 November, 2011

Oh COD, here we go again.

Modern Warfare 3, potentially the biggest game ever, will launch this Tuesday, 8th November.

At 00.01am on Tuesday morning - more commonly known as midnight, Monday - you'll be able to buy the game at shops across the UK.

Game and Gamestation will open 574 shops at midnight to welcome Modern Warfare 3.

The heart of Game's effort will be at HQ on Oxford Street, London. Shoppers there will have the chance of winning a Samsung telly, and will be "treated to a special delivery of the new release in a style never before seen at Game". Will it be better than a tank driving down Oxford Street - the stunt Game used for Battlefield 3?

You can also have your picture taken in front of a green screen, then your image digitally cut out and placed in key art from the game.

HMV, meanwhile, will open 150 shops at midnight to sell Modern Warfare 3, Eurogamer was told. This will include HMV on Oxford Street, HMV Trocadero Piccadilly Circus and other key outlets around the country.

If there are any other UK shops you know opening at midnight for Modern Warfare 3, please let us know.

In North America, where everything's bigger, GameStop plans to open 4400 shops at midnight to sell Modern Warfare 3. That makes even Walmart's 2700 midnight openings for MW3 look skimpy.

Nevertheless, our European time-zone means we'll play Modern Warfare 3 first.

But remember, if you find yourself the proud owner of a copy of Modern Warfare 3 on Xbox 360 before launch, don't play it - your Xbox Live account could be banned.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 7 months ago

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

  • tnman #1 7 months ago

    It was a bit confusing when the Xbox Live Director of Policy and Enforcement tweeted that it was okay to play MW3 before release and then followed it up with "actually, oops, nope". Bit silly, really. Why should gamers pay for retailer's mistakes?

  • Eurolamer #2 7 months ago

    These COD fish related puns get me hooked every year.

  • arcam #3 7 months ago

    Why should gamers pay for retailer's mistakes?

    They won't. His first tweet is the truth. The second one was the one he was asked to say to discourage people from thinking thta meant it was OK to download pre-release pirated versions.

  • ZombieJFK #4 7 months ago

    Yep, the Xbox Live ban thing is bullshit. Are journalists going to be banned for playing their PR copies? Is the Eurogamer Xbox Live account going to be banned? Is it shite. Remember that neither Activision nor MS know who is playing a PR copy and who is playing a shop-bought copy. They're the same disk. In my experience as a games journalist, I've never been asked to supply my gamertag details to any publisher or PR company, so they don't know who the journalists are.

    It's a PR lie to make people wait until Tuesday.

    edit: And in fact, it's interesting that Eurogamer are continuing to report this outright PR lie, seeing as they're likely playing a PR copy of the game currently without issue. I'd be interested to know whether they currently have the PS3 or Xbox version of the game.
    Edited by ZombieJFK at 04/11/11 @ 14:48

  • misterdoctor #5 7 months ago

    The sub-heading for this article is awesome.

  • ZombieJFK #6 7 months ago

    Also, when's the review?

  • Belmonth #7 7 months ago

    I hope this thing sales less than Black Ops. Its time ppl realise there is another, better franchize out there. BF3 just does things better than MW3 ever will. They got billions from sales and didnt even bother to make a new engine, its the same engine from MW1. Activision disgust me.

  • Jonny5Alive7 #8 7 months ago

    I got the impression MS aren't going to ban anyone, then Activision told them to say otherwise. At the end of the day its down to MS and they're not going to go banning people for innocently playing a legit copy of the game they got a day early.

    What if the one of the major stores cocked up and sent their copies out early? Its happened before, all those people wouldn't suddenly be banned it would be horrendous PR for them.

  • jonfon #9 7 months ago

    @Eurolamer
    It's the sole reason I opened this article

  • Biker_Bob_1971 #10 7 months ago

    Post deleted at 16:59:10 06-02-2012

  • Oli Verified Reviews Editor, Eurogamer.net #11 7 months ago

    @ZombieJFK The review will appear at 8am on Tuesday morning - Activision has timed the embargo with midnight on the west coast, rather than here. Sad face.

  • MattEdWithCheese #12 7 months ago

    I'm having the same thing with this I had with MW2, I didn't care about that 'til I heard about No Russian and I did enjoy the campaign. The new one seems to up the crazy a little further but I wasn't going to buy until I heard about: Datikklegurlasplode
    Edited by MattEdWithCheese at 04/11/11 @ 15:22

  • rob_of_the_robots #13 7 months ago

    Or you could just go to bed and get it in the morning or after work. What's that you say? Far too sensible? Silly me.

  • JayG #14 7 months ago

    As pirated Xbox version been out a while, doubt you will be playing it first.

  • Collymilad #15 7 months ago

    YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN.

    What? It was just the thought of midnight, made me sleepy :p

  • arcam #16 7 months ago

    So, for MW2 reviews they made everyone go to a hotel for a day, with flights and accomodation paid for by Activision and review it while the PR team milled around: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/11/modern-warfare-2-reviews-behind-the-scenes-of-early-access-1.ars

    Of course most reviewers didn't disclose the circumstances of the review last time.

    Oli, I don't supposes there's any chance whatsoever you'd let us know the how MW will be reviewed this time? And if it's done under similar pressured circumstances, whether you will let your readers know with a disclaimer this time, kind of like what was done with the BF3 review?

  • jonfon #17 7 months ago

    @Oli
    You know now that you can actually make a Sad Face in the comments rather than just typing the words

    :(

    See?
    :)
    Edited by jonfon at 04/11/11 @ 16:00

  • obidanshinobi #18 7 months ago

    @arcam - thx for the link, good article and would explain why Brink was scored so highly by journos.

  • obidanshinobi #19 7 months ago

    Post deleted at 09:51:37 12-12-2011

  • cowell #20 7 months ago

    At 00.01am on Tuesday morning - more commonly known as midnight,
    I thought 00.00am was more commonly known as midnight?



    /pointless nitpicking

  • neilka #21 7 months ago

    It's either 12.01am or 00.01, not both.

  • chrisola #22 7 months ago

    will Battlegamer.net remain after COD gets a better score than BF3 did?

  • Oli Verified Reviews Editor, Eurogamer.net #23 7 months ago

    @arcam
    MW3 was reviewed at a similar event, yes. We paid our own travel costs, but the reviewer's accommodation was taken care of. This was the only way it was possible for any publication to play the game before release.

    This is common enough practice - I did something similar for Halo: Reach, for example. It's not ideal circumstances, but ideal circumstances for game reviews don't really exist, and I have confidence in our reviewers to work professionally in that situation.

    Ultimately, we're always beholden to publishers for early access to games in order to review them, and if they want to do it this way rather than by stuffing a disc in a Jiffy bag, that's their lookout.

    Game reviews are nearly always pressured in one way or another. The reason we let you know the circumstances with BF3 was because it meant the review was late, and we thought you'd be wondering where it was.

    I'm not sure about adding a disclaimer - the only reason to do it is if you're unsure of the integrity of the review, and if you are, you shouldn't be running it in the first place.

  • arcam #24 7 months ago

    @Oli

    Really appreciate you letting us know. I wasn't expecting that and you and EG get big respect in my book for it.

    I do think it's a shame that reviews are for AAA games are done in such a controlled way - for Activision to pay for so many journalists to fly out and stay in a nice resort they are obviously getting something from all that spending, but I understand that's just the way the industry works.

    Thanks again for replying. I'll read the review with my usual dose of skepticism but you've shown that you are not trying to hide it, and that earns EG some positive karma :)

  • chrisola #25 7 months ago

    "The fucking pondlife that you will see will make you ashamed to be a gamer "

    Well the MW2 and GTA 4 ones i went to were full of primary school kids begging their parents to let them play it before bed.

    It's crazy that the game is rated 18 and yet shops\supermarkets blindly sell it to parents, whose 10 - 14 year old kids are standing next to them at the counter all excited and talking about how they are going to 'pwn the noobs' or 'run over the police in a bin lorry' etc.

    Yet, the same supermarkets won't sell you or your mate a 4 pack of beer if one of you looks under 25 and you both don't have ID to prove otherwise.

    Anyway, i've not seen any in game footage at all for this, or even read the previews -- i will rent it for the SP blast and a quick dip into MP and that's it...BF3 MP is nigh on perfect so i can't see myself making time to give MW3 a proper go.

  • weebl #26 7 months ago

    Ra, ra, ra. All this bloody whining about how bad the game is, how you hope it sells worse than Black Ops and how the engine is the same. Hopefully when the game is out all of these people will bloody stop posting crap on every COD related article.

    I hope it does sell better than Black Ops, which was a travesty and I can't believe people are still playing it. From the videos I've seen, the graphics do look richer, so if it is the same engine they are using it better.

    More importantly, I hope that people will realise that the style of gameplay can still be enjoyable without overpowering perks and boosters. It isn't like Battlefield at all, but that doesn't make it wrong.

  • Lucodeath #27 7 months ago

    Ill wait for a review.

  • Sildur #28 7 months ago

    It seems all other major game review websites have been bought and paid for with Activision's Call of Duty bribes. I pray at least Eurogamer will be able to give an objective review.

  • Bluetooth #29 7 months ago

    I've seen multiplayer footage on Youtube already, it's MW2 and a bit. Not even 2.5. That leaves singleplayer, which I am looking forward to - I want to see how Soap and Price get on! Which leaves me the question - is the campaign and spec ops worth 35?

  • layleeloo #30 7 months ago

    Midnight launch? Mid day today for me thanks :)

  • ZombieJFK #31 7 months ago

    @Oli Cheers!

  • todoso #32 7 months ago

    @EddieMink: The fucking pondlife that you will see will make you ashamed to be a gamer

    +1 for the hearty laughter upon reading this. It's funny 'cause it's true...

  • Jonny5Alive7 #33 7 months ago

    @rob_of_the_robots They would have none left.

  • alan_stealth #34 7 months ago

    @Sildur are you fucking joking? Eurogamer objective? Eurogamer an actual review? They're either a 1st year uni students creative writing project, an uninformed biased "Sun newspaper" article or an advert for a game.

  • the_sas_man #35 7 months ago

    "At 00.01am on Tuesday morning - more commonly known as midnight..."

    Hmmm, I think EG need to realise that 00:00am is midnight.

    00:01am is 1 minute past midnight.

    I love being a pedantic mofo.