Written by John Scalzo  on November 10, 2009

News Round-Up: Are you up-to-date on all things Call of Duty? Catch up with the week that was with our Modern Warfare 2 news roll call.

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It was a wild week for Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The shooter sequel is now in stores everywhere, but it's domination of the gaming landscape began seven days ago.

On that day, GameStop confirmed that Modern Warfare 2 had become the company's most pre-ordered game of all-time.

"By all indicators, we anticipate Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be the biggest entertainment launch of all time," says Tony Bartel, executive vice president for merchandising and marketing at GameStop. "As of today, the number of pre-order reservations we've taken for the game is the highest for any title we've ever sold in our 6,200 store network."



Later in the day, the ESRB released the Rating Summary for the game, which shed a little more light on the soon to be infamous "No Russian" level:

The most intense depiction of violence occurs during a "No Russian" mission where players take on the role of an undercover Ranger: Several civilians are gunned down at an airport as players are given a choice to participate in the killings (e.g., players can shoot a wounded civilian that is crawling on the ground), or walk by and observe without opening fire. In either case, civilians scream and emit pools of blood as they are shot to death.

While the idea of playing as a terrorist (even a terrorist who is actually an undercover Army Ranger) has some pundits and players in shock, the game's launch trailer provided viewers with a different, but equally as powerful, shock to the system...



But it hasn't been all good news for Activision's biggest moneymaker. On Friday, three digital distribution retailers confirmed that they would not be selling Modern Warfare 2 due to its use of the Steamworks platform. Direct2Drive, Impulse and GamersGate have all chosen to not offer the game for download than sell a game that actively promotes their competitor (and #1 digital download destination) Steam. A Direct2Drive spokesman said "We don't believe games should force the user to install a Trojan Horse."

Modern Warfare 2 was attacked from another unlikely source during this week's GameTrailers TV broadcast. Host Geoff Keighly was interviewing Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime when he threw down the gauntlet and predicted that New Super Mario Bros. Wii would outsell the newly released Call of Duty title. On a single platform at least...

Geoff Keighly: Is [New Super Mario Bros. Wii] going to outsell Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2?

Reggie Fils-Aime: "On a single platform... absolutely. I say that unequivocally."

You've got to give me the entire holiday selling season. Let's take it all the way through the January NPD data."

Is Reggie right? While Modern Warfare 2 will be the undisputed champion of the Fall gaming season among multiplatform releases, I think the NoA head could be right on the money.

While being called out by Nintendo, a company not usually known for partaking in the console wars, is bad enough, the worst news came on Sunday. Two days ahead of the release date, GameStop stores in several cities began selling Modern Warfare 2 early.

The early sales were described by GameStop as a corporate decision to fend off advances from local retailers who had previously broken the street date. The largest chain of game stores in the country also claimed that they had received "special permission" from Activision to break the street date. Activision and Infinity Ward deny they gave any such permission, though neither company seems too bothered by the broken street date.

So while it hasn't been all good news in the lead-up to the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the game is finally here. And that's the best news of all.