Infinite Path

If you’ve seen the footage on the news today of the London launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the sixth installment of the Call of Duty series, it may come as no surprise to you that the game is widely expected to become the biggest selling video game in history.

The launch of the game represented the first time Westminster council granted permission for a games company to launch a product in an area traditionally reserved for film premieres, highlighting the manner in which the gaming industry is booming across the world.

The scope of Modern Warfare 2’s popularity is extraordinary; HMV expects over a million UK sales in the first week alone, a figure which would represent a 20% increase over the sales of Grand Theft Auto 4, which previously held the record, and other experts are predicting as many as 5 million sales across the world in just the first day following the launch.

The video game was released at midnight and many fans who have been eagerly anticipating the launch have taken time off work to get to grips with the game. Modern Warfare 2 is likely to benefit from the timing of its release, with the launch date coming in the run-up to Christmas.

The game has not, however, been surrounded by exclusively positive press; it has suffered from criticism concerning the graphic nature of certain elements and the usual concerns from media commentators have arisen about the potential consequences of younger players getting involved in these games for extended periods of time. Activision, the company responsible for the game, maintain that the game as a whole does not focus upon explicit, graphic scenes, preferring to take the stance of ‘everything in moderation’.