GameStop announced today that it would hold the “world’s largest” Modern Warfare 2 tournament kicking off November 20 both online and at 2900+ US GameStop locations. I wonder if the fact that it’s the world’s only Modern Warfare 2 tournament makes it the world’s largest…?

There are actually three different tourneys. The first is the US-only Xbox 360 one-on-one tourney where Round 1 takes place in-store, Round 2 takes it to Xbox Live and the finals go down in some as-yet undecided location — grand prize is $US5000. Then there are the International four-on-four tourneys for Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, which you can find at gamebattles.com/gamestop. The top four teams from each platform will go to the finals to duke it out for a $US10,000 grand prize.

Get more details here.

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Dropping a fiver at your local GameStop location for Lost Planet 2 will score you a code granting you access to the skin of Resident Evil’s superhuman Umbrella Corporation operative. Sure, you won’t get Albert’s superhuman strength, speed, and regeneration, but you will also unlock his revolver, which is just as handy to have around.

Cops in Meadville, Pa. say a man went into a GameStop there at 7pm on Tuesday, informed the clerk he had armed help out the door who’d start shooting if anyone called police, and so therefore start handing over the merch. I like that style. The hell with this finger-in-the-jacket-pocket shit. Just let your imaginary friend be your accomplice.

The guy made off with 100 copies of MW2, plus some other items for a total cash-and-prizes value of $US6900.

I’m not sure what surprises me the most, the ballsiness of the robber, or the fact a GameStop still had 100 copies of this 19 hours after its midnight release.

Also, please tell me the “other items” were some refurbed PS2s with balky DVD drives. Please.

Man Steals 100 Copies Of Popular Video Game From GameStop [WPXI-TV, Pittsburgh, via Destructoid]

Nintendo and GameStop are co-sponsoring driver Denny Hamlin for this weekend’s Able Body Labor 200 at Phoenix International Raceway, forcing him to drive a New Super Mario Bros. Wii car in an oval Saturday, November 14. Hey, it pays the bills!

Explaining the move, GameStop COO Paul Raines told Reuters “A large market for full game downloads is not imminent, (but) the add-on downloadable market will grow”.

Here’s how they figure they can help cash in. Backed by both Microsoft and Sony (no word on Nintendo as of yet), this isn’t some fancy scheme where you can buy DLC on a disc. You’re buying it from GameStop, then when you get home, you still have to download it. Saving you from having to do…

GameStop to sell digital game downloads [Reuters]

The following all came from half-hour presentations to investors and press today at the BMO Capital Markets 17th Annual Digital Entertainment Conference today.

-”By making [a] game relevant [with DLC] we all keep the average retail price point up to $US59.99.” – Dan DeMatteo, CEO of GameStop, describing one of the added benefits of releasing downloadable content for a major game, presumably keeping gamers hooked for longer, making a game hotter and diminishing the need to cut the price.

-”For a long time critics said that the video game industry didn’t care about females.” – Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, before saying that Nintendo has identified two “broad propositions” that work for that audience: 1) games that appeal to their personal interests and 2) games that allow them to enjoy playing with the rest of their family.

-”This is like a relaunch in the middle of a console generation.” – Dennis Durkin, COO Interactive Entertainment Business, Microsoft, talking about the 2010-slated Project Natal hands-free controller for the Xbox 360.

-”Top 20″ – Eric Brown, EA CFO, saying that that’s the list EA wants to have more of its games in and is structuring its business toward. That compares, he said to the Top 40 bestselling games, which was an older goal. The Top 20 is, increasingly, where the lion’s share is.

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“Activision is disappointed to learn that some retail locations have released ahead of schedule,” a company spokesperson told Kotaku in a statement before reiterating that the company has given no retailer permission to sell the game prior to November 10.

Activision’s disappointment comes at an awkward hour as, this evening, a GameStop in New York City’s Union Square is co-hosting a Modern Warfare 2 launch event with Activision and Microsoft.

A GameStop representative declined to offer any further comment about the company’s move beyond company comments from the weekend confirming it had officially green-lit the early sale in some regions of the county.

Microsoft is producing a special Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 bundle. A representative for the company referred all comment to Activision.

But Activision peer Capcom did sound a note of caution about the whole situation.

“Street dates are broken all the time,” Capcom director of communications and industry veteran Chris Kramer told Kotaku. “But I’ve never seen the decision made at a corporate level before. Launching a new game is an incredibly complicated process for the publisher at a level of Capcom or Activision, a process that makes publishers rely heavily on partners at many levels. That one of those partners — especially a partner that still is a significant part of a publisher’s business — could just decide to change a roll-out of a game is more than a bit distressing.”

The early breaking of the street date for Modern Warfare 2 appear to be spurred by copies of the game being sent to retailers mid-week.

GameStop’s move would seem to strain the company’s relationship with publishers, but none indicated to Kotaku that they plan to take action.

Activision reps did not address specific Kotaku queries about whether the company would take any action against GameStop or change any of its practices involving shipping games early to retailers.

Capcom’s Kramer said he did not think the Modern Warfare 2 incident would not change his company’s policies about product delivery and street dates. A country the geographic size of the US needs product to be spread early in preparation for a big launch, he said.

PlayStation maker Sony Computer Entertainment of America also doesn’t plan changes. “If GameStop broke any street on MW2, that’s between GameStop and Activision,” SCEA director of corporate communications, Patrick Seybold, told Kotaku. This won’t impact the way we work with GameStop or other retailers.”


Representatives from some other major publishers, including EA, Take Two and Warner Brothers declined to comment for this story.

The statement, from Chris Olivera, vice president for corporate communications at GameStop’s Grapevine, Texas headquarters:

This past weekend, GameStop made the decision to break street date and sell reserved copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in select markets where other retailers had broken street date. Our decision followed many conversations with Activision and was an effort to protect our customer base.

Earlier, Activision told Kotaku that it did not give GameStop its permission to break the street date. “Activision has not given any retailer permission to sell Modern Warfare 2 prior to the Nov. 10 street date. The company fully supports the Nov. 10 street date.”

Olivera did not specify exactly how many of its stores GameStop authorised to sell Modern Warfare 2, nor in all of the markets it did so. From reader tips and follow-up phone calls, Kotaku knows that stores in Bowie, Md., Bowling Green, Ohio, Reading, Pa., and New York City were involved.

I’ve asked if this is unprecedented or if GameStop had ever done this with another game before. Should Olivera follow back up with me, I’ll update all he has to say in this story.

But in the eye of the contentious hurricane that swirls around the upcoming launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, developer Infinity Ward appears unfazed.

“It’s very exciting,” said Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling, who’s title changed from community manager to “creative strategist” as the buzz began to swell for Modern Warfare 2. “I’m fully expecting it to do very well. I’m expecting good things.”

And he should be. Set in modern times, the first-person shooter has already broken the record for most pre-orders, according to national retailer GameStop.

And industry analyst Anita Frazier says there’s a very good chance it will break Halo 3’s record for 3.3 million copies sold at launch.

“The previous best-selling Call of Duty games (across all platforms) in its launch month is a tie between (Modern Warfare) and COD World at War with 2.3 million units including those generated by PC sales at retail,” said Frazier, who tracks sales numbers for the NPD Group. “For the title to exceed Halo 3 first month sales, COD: MW2 would have to best its previous best launches by 43 per cent.”

“That’s a big number to increase, but is it possible? Yes, with what is being reported about pre-sells and the general level of buzz that this game is generating, it’s possible. There are also a number of high-interest special edition SKU’s launching for this game as well.”

But all of that buzz, and those millions of pre-orders, means a lot of people are paying very close attention to what developer Infinity Ward is doing this time around with the game.

Fans have been carefully tracking every bit of information dropped about the game, from the night-vision goggles that will be included with some special editions of the title, to plot twists and the way the game will be handled on different platforms.

“We have come to a realisation with this game that anything that can leak will leak,” Bowling said. “When our night vision glasses went into production, the guys making them figured out what they were for and put them on and took pictures of them.”

The leaks have reached such a fevered pitch that Bowling recently advised gamers to avoid the internet altogether if they wanted to have a pristine experience playing through the game.

Soon after, word and video hit of a level in the game that seems to involve player-controlled terrorism. Despite the game being weeks from release, Australian politicians were up in arms about the notion and eventually publisher Activision released a statement defending the game and saying players will have the option to skip it.

But that short lived controversy was nothing compared to the ire raised by the developer’s approach to the PC version of the game. When news hit that PC gamers would have less control over the way they play online it ignited a firestorm of seething disappointment, online petitions and, in at least one case, a cash donation to a competing video game.

Bowling and the company defend the decisions made to make the PC game more accessible.

“We have protected what our veteran gamers love about the game, but are also catering to different play styles and rewarding those different play styles,” Bowling said. “Accessibility was a major focus for Modern Warfare 2.”

And Bowling denies that Infinity Ward and Activision are more focused on making the console versions of the game than a solid PC version.

“We make a fantastic PC game,” he said. “Modern Warfare 2 is our most feature-rich PC game yet.”

When asked if the next Modern Warfare would be on the PC, Bowling said he doesn’t even know yet what Infinity Ward’s next game will be.

Bowling believes that the outcry against Infinity Ward’s design decisions by some PC gamers is a case of a loud minority, and not the sentiments of the majority.

“We have 14 million players on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” he said. “The hardcore gamers make up a smaller core of that, and PC gamers are the smallest group of that core.

“It is a very vocal community and they are all online.”

The outcry is perhaps also the offshoot of a game developer being so engaged with their community.

“Our community gets so invested in our games,” Bowling said. “Therefore they feel, and rightfully so, that we should justify every design decision to them. I think that it’s very important to understand that you should be very involved in your community and work with them, but not to be held prisoner to their demands.

“We know our game very well. Some of the stuff you have to put in there and have faith in your design. Some things don’t sound good out of context. You don’t see the beauty of them until you experience them for yourselves.”

“It’s a very fine line.”

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.