| Set On Stun |

Stop by the virtual 7-11 for a cyber slushee first

The block party is on the way. Okay look, maybe I’ve been a bit harsh on Microsoft recently so here’s something nice. As we head into March the folks over at Xbox Live have a big launch plan they are putting into action related to the what they talked about last year — the Xbox Live Gameroom.

Starting March 3, gamers can download a new arcade game every week and the end of the month they can download the app that goes with it. As a bonus you get 400 MS points at the end of it all and well you have three new games. The first two games (Toy Soldiers and Scrap Metal) are 1200 points and the last one, the cherry on top game is the old Perfect Dark (not the one that was part of the early 360 launch– Perfect Dark Zero). This was the multiplayer masterpiece that was originally released to the Nintendo 64.

After all this is said and done Xbox live will be as they call it in their press release, “kickin it old school” in this virtual arcade (replete with old school cabinets) with dowloadable arcade classics that will run anywhere from  240 to 400 Microsoft Points for game downloads  and 40 Microsoft Points for single gameplay. That’s .50 cents for a single play. The games on the roster will be revealed.

Okay so yes you have to spend like $40 bucks to get $5 back but this whole new virtual arcade may just be a good way to get a lot of casual gamers on board using Xbox live  and change up the game a little bit from the usual frag fest that’s online now. It’s a clever move create a central locale for all these games and your avatars. With a solid library of old games the this type of setup creates the instant gratification of the quick play or the re-playability of owning the game both on your console and your PC. This is the kind of move that targets the gamers who grew up with these games who can relive the glory of shooting asteroids and floating polygons. For the new gang of gamers it’s a chance for them to say — “This was a game?”

Updates will be continuously posted and uber promoted on XBL throughout the month.

When Activision starts printing money they'll use this logo

The the Twilight: New Moon movie was supposed to break all kinds of records when it came out and impressively it made $120 million during it’s first weekend. COD:MW2 or MW2 made $550 million — in its first few days!

Let that settle for a minute.

It’s a recession, millions of people are unemployed and yet a videogame which retails at $60 made all that mad cash? Ridiculous? Yes when you consider we’re talking about a videogame and not a movie. But if you break it down and look at a ravenous fan base that was still playing the first game matched with a Kraken size marketing campaign what you get is one of the biggest video game launches ever and once again a top-rated, top selling game that outshines it’s predecessor in every way shape and form.

Rolling back to the success of the first game which continued to pull impressive numbers even 4 months after its initial release you can see where this thing started.

The Breakdown
Not very long after Infinity Ward’s home run in a box Call of Duty: Modern Warfare another COD was released called World at War … but this was not a sequel to modern warfare. Decent game, yes, but a follow up, no. When we finally got wind of what the real MW2 was going to look like well — then it was on.

Right from the onset of this marketing blitz we got to see how PR in the right hands can not just get people excited about a game but actually get the game to sell even more.

A Twitter page asking fans what they want to see in the game? Check. What better way to get every possible suggestion you could give credence to or toss? Then take that same page and use it to give the same fans an inside look as the game is being built. Can we say Pavlov?

It’s all about the branding

So to really give this game that “stamp” the used Infinity Ward used the branding of the developer and the game’s logo and sold that as the iconic image  in all their E3 signage and marketing material.  The minute you saw it, you knew what it was — like seeing that Marvel comic flip at the beginning of their comic book movies. A simple, clean presentation with a clever countdown date, a lot of buzz and very little intel to go on. Then slowly but surely things began to take shape. Okay so maybe the viral video promoting the game in a fake YouTube PSA called Fight Against Grenade Spam (F.A.G.S) wasn’t the brightest of ideas, but it did get people talking about the game.

But the trailer — oh that first trailer — what a way to get people excited about something in November besides football and turkey. Well executed and replete with all the things you would expect to see from this game it started a buzz that would eventually develop into a boom. When the game launched, Xbox live users logged in more than 5.2  million hours of multiplayer time. Keep in mind the game had a midnight release so we’re looking at a full 24 hours of people buying the game and then playing it incessantly.

Also know as Call of Duty: Cash Cow 2

Big Marketing Budget = Big Success

Let’s pull back the curtain though on these impressive numbers in sales and fan glorification though. How were they able to pull this off? Basically Activision allegedly spent more money on promotion, distribution and marketing than they did on developing the game. A little less than a quarter of the estimated $200 million budget was for development. What does that mean? It means that the  marketing budget gave them coverage in print, on television and the web with a heavy push the last month before release. It means that they wouldn’t run out of copies come game release day when they opened the doors for midnight sales. It means that they could also offer special edition packages and the mammoth 250 gig special edition Xbox 360 console as well and still sell them because people wanted to get those night vision goggles or that one of a kind console. It means that they spent money — to make money.

What we have here is a strategy that was mapped out, knowing that the cash cow was going to produce golden milk as long as they took extra special care of it no matter what the cost. Did it work? If making more than double what you spent on this title in a few days counts as success then yes. The beauty of it is that after all the hype (and controversy) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was an unparalleled success and all this right at the beginning of a holiday season where word of mouth and success translates into a hot ticket item.

Well done to Activision and Infinity Ward for making lightning strike twice. The bar hasn’t been raised, it’s been given an elevator ride 12 stories up.

Buy me and together, well alone I'll make a lot of money

No this is not an article proclaiming Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2 to have mad jedi skills that will restore the sagging economy of the gaming industry. In this case, one game can’t make a difference. It can though, make a dent, get rave reviews and beat GTAIV in initial sales.

Not that moving 4.5 million units is something to scoff at but we’re a long way from proclaiming MW2 as the sign that the gaming sales slump is over. Still, it’s kind of mind blowing what they did.  Think about the fact that we have the highest unemployment rate in almost three decades but we have one game raking in $310 million in one day of sales.

1 day!

Where are people getting the money to get a game that retails at $60? It’s a head scratcher for sure but for a game that already broke records the first time around, put together a massive marketing campaign for the sequel and had people talking about this game since July — well weak economy or not, it would seem people were willing to find the cash to spend on this game.

Think about this –the big Transformers sequel that came out this summer (Rise of the Fallen) only made $200 million — its first weekend.

So does this mean we can expect Assassin’s Creed 2 and Left for Dead 2 to bring it home and close out the year with some killer sales? Not exactly.  They unlike Mw2 did not have the massive hype machine driving their promotion. Sure, the originals were big hits but will they have the massive launch day that MW2 had. Not likely. What this does prove is that if anyone still has doubts that videogames are not a viable industry then this past week should change your mind.

As Vader would say, “Impressive, Obi-Wan has taught you well.”

Okay so maybe we’re just a little excited over here at SOS about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 but can you blame us? Think back to the first game’s release, how well it did, how well it continued to do into the next year even when game sales were slagging. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was rocking up the charts and pulling in the cash. And well … it was and still is one of the best FPS war games ever made.

So what’s doing as fans and hardcore COD gamers get ready to snap up Infinity Ward’s and Activision’s latest installment, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2? (COD:MW2)

Over in the Xbox Live marketplace you can now download the full game of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and they’ve set up a whole section of Live dedicated to all things MW2. It would seem they’re excited too. Retailer Gamestop has posted a list of every store in the country that will have a midnight opening to sell the game.

But wait there’s more!

They’re offering a sweepstakes that is sure to please any gamer willing to take the time to enter. It’s called surprize attack (get it — sur-prize attack? Wargame… Bueller, Bueller).  Anyway, if you pre-order Modern Warfare 2, you can play for your chance to win a Hummer H2, Polaris snowmobile, Ducati motorcycle and tons of other cool prizes inspired by the game. That’s right, you can win stuff you see in the game (assumedly not any of the weapons — that would be crazy and wrong)

Best Buy is also following suit with a listing of all their midnight opening stores as well but all they have in the way of cool stuff is a $10 gift card. For no apparent reason, they’re still pushing a Tekken 6 sweepstakes. They are though selling all the various versions of MW2.

Oh and the release calendar for next week has COD:MW2’s biggest competition as –  people not having money to buy any version of the game. As far as other games, it’s not that there aren’t other games being released, it’s just no one cares. No surprise that Left for Dead 2 wisely releases the following week otherwise it probably would have been left for dead on the shelves.

So there you have it, all the hullabaloo you can cram into four days is being crammed. Thankfully we haven’t seen the marketing machine’s ugly head pop up offering us things like Modern Warfare themed energy drinks, keychains and messenger bags. No this time around the excitement is thoroughly justified, the hype is set at the proper level and as we mentioned before, it would be amazing if after all this we don’t get what we’ve been eagerly waiting for.

If you happen to see a post next week that looks like the ramblings of a crazy person gushing with love and admiration about a videogame, you won’t need to guess what it’s about.

COD: Modern Warfare 2 -- How's this for a bundle of joy

In a little more than 2 weeks legions of Call of Duty fans will get to lay down their $60, $79, $149 or $399 (if they haven’t pre-ordered it) for what’s been hyped to be possibly the best game of the year – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. There’s no doubt the game will make bundles of cash but with the mad marketing blitz and the GTA size expectations will Activision and Infinity Ward deliver something that will blow our minds and suck up countless hours of gaming? Well if you haven’t been one of the lucky folks who have had a chance to play some of MW2’s multiplayer then you by now no doubt have seen at least one of the big budget movie style game trailers that are out there.  Pixel for pixel Modern Warfare 2 already looks spectacular and from all the gushing reports from those aforementioned lucky folks who have had a chance to play the game you would think this is close to perfect.

Remember though folks it’s not as simple as gushing previews and amazing clips. Not to say that this sequel will be the most well-marketed colossal failure but we know from past experience that hype of this kind runs dangerously close to being overkill even for a game has millions of eager fans scratching off the days on their calendar and game reviewers already tagging the game with all the laudatory gold stars, editor’s choice and game of the year pins.

Let’s not forget about the packages either

• There’s the regular old game
• The Hardened Edition — Special edition Steel Book case, Behind the Lines hardbound art book and downloadable Call of Duty Classic game
• The Prestige Edition — everything in the hardened edition plus fully functional night vision goggles and a nifty stand to put them on (suck it Sam Fisher

And the cream of the crop
The Special Edition  MW2 Xbox 360 Elite

More gaming power than you'll ever need

Two controllers, a headset, the game and a specially designed elite made to look like its on the back of a jeep that has one more big bonus — it has 250 gigs. That’s right, for $100 more than the current price of the elite you get that. How could you not pass that up?

So add those incentives, plus pre-order deals from retailers to all the hype about the game itself and you have a sequel that’s primed to succeed before gamers have fraggged one enemy. Let’s hope the game is as glorious as all the buildup.