Call of Duty: Black Ops

[Failed]

I'll be buying this years Treyarch edition and they better wow me or theres gonna be trouble

[GamerMan316]

Black Ops may be "biggest game ever"

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is the UK's best selling game ever, but retailer HMV has reason to believe new instalment Call of Duty: Black Ops will beat it.

"We're seeing some exceptional interest for this title across its different formats," HMV's senior buyer James Brooks revealed to Eurogamer. "Particularly our co-exclusive on the Prestige Edition on HMV.com, where stock is nearly sold-through now and very little is left.

"Based on all this initial demand and the huge excitement that's clearly being generated, I'd say this title has every chance of being the biggest game release ever, and it's certainly shaping up to become the largest pre-order that we've seen in-store and online on HMV.com."

A pre-order chart on fellow retailer Play.com echoes the sentiment; Black Ops is top on Xbox 360, second on PS3 and the Hardened Edition 10th on Xbox 360. However, a spokesperson for Play.com said "no comment" could be made about whether the game will "break any existing opening week sales". "[Play.com is] still in a wait and see scenario," we were told.

Glance around and the story is the same. GAME couldn't tell Eurogamer anything, but Call of Duty: Black Ops sits merrily atop its pre-order chart on Xbox 360 (the PS3 version is second, PC ninth). And Amazon lists Call of Duty: Black Ops on Xbox 360 as its second best seller behind FIFA 11.

But there's one retailer going against the grain: ShopTo. Marketing manager Phil Driver told Eurogamer "COD will be in our all-time top 10 sellers", but added Activision's game "won't be top".

"We are expecting Gran Turismo 5 to be our greatest ever seller," he said, citing a low price and a ShopTo-exclusive deal as the reason why.

Earlier this month, US mega-retailer GameStop touted record pre-orders for Call of Duty: Black Ops. "We are ahead of where we were with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 last year, which previously set the industry standard," bigwig Bob McKenzie commented.

Call of Duty: Black Ops, developed by Treyarch, will be released on 9th November.

Last month Xbox 360-exclusive Halo: Reach became Microsoft's "biggest" game release ever, beating all previous Halo games.

Reach took $200 million in 24 hours, making it 2010's biggest entertainment release so far - even bigger than the three-day opening weekends of films Iron Man 2, Alice in Wonderland and Toy Story 3.

A bullish Microsoft predicted, pre-release, that Halo: Reach would outsell Call of Duty: Black Ops, although analysts went on to challenge these claims.

Activision's previous Call of Duty game, Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2, was crowned the UK's best-selling game of all time in August this year. The shooter took 41 weeks to accomplish the task, and lifted the crown from previous leader Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training on DS.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is also the fastest-selling UK game ever, after shifting over 1.7 million copies in just five days. By the end of 2009, Modern Warfare 2 had amassed 11.86 million sales - 8.82 million of which were done in the US.

Modern Warfare 2 game sales were glorious, then, but DLC also did well: Activision noted that there had been 20 million DLC sales (at 1200 MSP/£11 a pop) by the end of June 2010.

[GamerMan316]

Black Ops violence 'went too far' - Treyarch
New facial capture meant some kills were too realistic

Call of Duty: Black Ops makes use of a new facial animation capture system so realistic that it had to be toned down for some kills.

"We've completely changed the way we do facial animation," director Dave Anthony told OPM.

"Some of the stuff we've done with Gary Oldman's character is amazing."

But animation director Dominique Drozdz said that the animation was a little too good in places.

"There were situations going too far," he added.

"It was a a contextual kill where you were twisting the neck. It was too much. The throat cutting [is] nasty, but that was worse."

So there you have it people, we've reached the point where killing in games is too realistic.

It's all downhill from here.

If you're itching to get your hands on Black Ops all the details for midnight launches up and down the country were released yesterday.

[ASYLUM NINJA]

this is the first time treyarch has been given a decent amount of time to develop a COD game so it should be good and preorders are greater than MW2 so it will probably be the biggest entertainment launch in history

[GamerMan316]

Trade in Medal of Honor, get Black Ops for £7.99
HMV knocking £47 off RRP if punters cash in EA's shooter

HMV's set to offer a pretty attractive trade in deal for Medal of Honor owners ready to move on to the next big FPS, Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Trade in EA's shooter and the retailer will knock £47 off Black Ops' £54.99 RRP, allowing you to pick up the game for just £7.99, according to MCV.

Covering both the PS3 and 360 versions of Medal of Honor, the deal's due to run from Black Ops' November 9 launch until November 15.

[markav]

Hmv for me on tuesday then

[GamerMan316]

Black Ops gets UK age rating

[GamerMan316]

In the Shadow of Black Ops

[GamerMan316]

'Everybody knows' 360 is best for CoD: Black Ops - Microsoft
War of words over Activision shooter begins

Xbox's director of entertainment and marketing, Stephen McGill, has said that Xbox 360 is the best place to play Call of Duty: Black Ops and "everyone knows" it.

McGill was speaking to MCV about the upcoming back-to-back releases of Kinect and Call of Duty: Black Ops - and dropped in the fighting words seemingly unprompted.

"With Kinect and Call of Duty it's an incredible week for retail; they are going to be so busy," said McGill.

"Obviously everyone knows the best place to play Black Ops is on Xbox 360. But there are so many great games still to come out. For Q4 there hasn't been a better line-up for years." he added.

Don't mince your words Mr. McGill.

At E3, Microsoft announced a multi-year deal with Activision that will see all Call Of Duty add-ons debut first on Xbox 360.

Activision previously omitted PlayStation's logo from a print run of Call Of Duty: Black Ops ads in the UK.

[GamerMan316]

GAME selling Black Ops for £24.99...
... when purchased with any other chart title on Xbox 360 or PS3; Rumours of £25 price at Sainsbury's and Morrisons

MCV can reveal that leading UK games retailer GAME will be selling Call of Duty: Black Ops on day one for £24.99.

The price will be available to anyone who buys the game in conjunction with any other in-store chart title on either Xbox 360 or PS3.

In addition, the game will also be available to purchase for £24.99 outright if any of the following titles are traded in – Halo: Reach, Dead Rising 2, F1 2010 or FIFA 11.

In Gamestation an extra £5 of store credit will be given to anyone who trades two titles against a purchase of Black Ops. That means any consumers swapping two recent triple-A games will likely be getting the game for nothing, and possibly receive some store credit on top.

In an extra deal, Black Ops will cost just £20 when bought alongside an Xbox 360 4GB console.

All three deals will run until Sunday November 14th.

"We've got more games, and specifically more copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops, than anyone else and we're also offering the biggest range of deals offering fantastic value," trading director for GAME and Gamestation Adam Davis stated.

"We know our customers are dedicated to gaming and we are reflecting that passion in our deals for this amazing title."

GAME's Oxford Street store will be one of over 400 to hold a midnight opening for the game's release on Monday night. Signed posters from the Treyarch development team will be up for grabs, as well as 500 goodie bags for those who buy the game.

Yesterday MCV confirmed that HMV will be selling the game for just £7.99 when punters trade in EA's Medal of Honor.

There are also rumours doing the rounds that Sainsbury's and Morrisons will be selling the game on day one for £25, though MCV has not been able to confirm this as of yet.

[GamerMan316]

CoD: Black Ops launch to beat Modern Warfare 2 - Kotick
Activision CEO expects the "biggest entertainment launch of all time"

Activision boss Bobby Kotick expects Call of Duty: Black Ops to surpass Modern Warfare 2's record breaking debut and become the biggest entertainment launch of all time.

Speaking during an investor call in which the company announced plans to support the franchise with more downloadable content than ever before in 2011, the exec said:

"Our latest instalment, Black Ops, launches next week and is likely to be the biggest entertainment launch of all time.

"In the landscape where many entertainment providers are trying to figure out how to manage lower audience engagement and rapid obsolescence, our core franchises are posting record engagement levels and seeing adoption curves that are longer... than ever before."

Activision CFO Thomas Tippl added: "... We believe that the growth opportunity in Call of Duty has never been stronger than what it is today for us, particularly given the strength of our development teams and the consumer excitement and the equity behind the brand... So we are very bullish about it."


He may actually be right this time and we'll never hear the end of it either.   

[Failed]

people just aren't talking about it like they were MW2, i won't be turning up at Tesco at 7am to get my copy, i will be going after work about 6pm instead.

[Maibs]

people just aren't talking about it like they were MW2, i won't be turning up at Tesco at 7am to get my copy, i will be going after work about 6pm instead.

Mine was dispatched today, hoping for tomorrow but will probably be monday, although they're usually pretty good had fifa 2 days before release.

[GamerMan316]

people just aren't talking about it like they were MW2, i won't be turning up at Tesco at 7am to get my copy, i will be going after work about 6pm instead.

Far more pre-orders worldwide though, whether it eventually sells more than MW2 remains to be seen though, I doubt it will, more than likely have a bigger launch due to the pre-orders though.

[Failed]

people just aren't talking about it like they were MW2, i won't be turning up at Tesco at 7am to get my copy, i will be going after work about 6pm instead.

Far more pre-orders worldwide though, whether it eventually sells more than MW2 remains to be seen though, I doubt it will, more than likely have a bigger launch due to the pre-orders though.

I'm pretty psyched for it tbh, i'm feeling the love for all the customisation and ofcourse zombie horde. What really got me though was offline MP with bots (possibly splitscreen [tis defo coop]). If it is splitscreen offline MP with bots, count me sold.

EDIT: just checked and Treyarch say that it will be splitscreen MP, including taking a Guest profile Online (like Halo, Gears et al). Will be getting mine Tue