SANTA MONICA, Calif.,
Nov. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- After a
year of anticipation, after the breakout success of the first-ever
Call of Duty® XP live fan event, and after pre-order
numbers that toppled even those of 2010's mega-seller Call of
Duty®: Black Ops, the ultimate shot has at last been fired.
Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 is now available at
retail worldwide. Also launching today alongside MW3, is the
revolutionary new social gaming network Call of Duty®
Elite, conceived expressly to help Call of
Duty®'s 30 million devoted fans Play Together
Better™.
Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 kicked
off its worldwide invasion at midnight as gamers crashed launch
parties at over 13,000 retailers from Sydney to London to New York
City, intent on being among the first to pull the trigger on
the title dubbed "the most anticipated video game in history" by
GameStop's Senior Vice President of Merchandising, Bob McKenzie. "This watershed launch extends the
legacy of the franchise like no other previous release," said
Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision
Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard,
Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI). "Combining the narrative punch and
gameplay innovations of the next chapter in the Call of
Duty: Modern Warfare series with the unique
services of Call of Duty Elite will bring Call of
Duty gamers together in a cohesive, fan-focused environment
like no other."
Co-developed by Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games,
Modern Warfare® 3 delivers a full assault on gamers'
senses, including an intense single-player campaign that picks up
immediately following the events of Call of Duty®: Modern
Warfare® 2 and escalates into World War 3, as well as
groundbreaking upgrades to the beloved Special Ops like the all-new
Survival Mode. Special Ops serves as the perfect springboard to
Modern Warfare 3's re-imagined multiplayer, featuring
the series' trademark visceral gun-on-gun combat, a revamped
pointstreak system with the introduction of "Strike Packages,"
devastating new modes like "Kill Confirmed" and other gameplay
enhancements, new features and a bevy of new weapons, equipment,
and perks.
Gamers can ratchet up the excitement even further with the Xbox
360 Limited Edition Console package, featuring a console with
custom Call of Duty® MW3 artwork, a 320GB hard drive,
two wireless controllers, custom Modern
Warfare-inspired system audio and a copy of the game.
Call of Duty Elite, from developer Beachhead
Studio, is a comprehensive social gaming network and offers a deep
and innovative free service for all registered Call of Duty players
to Connect, Compete, and Improve. Call of Duty
Elite provides "always-on," universal communication
between the platform and the game. Players can access Call of
Duty Elite via mobile, web, or console—to connect with
friends, plan matches with their Clan or social Group, configure
load-outs, access comprehensive stats and interactive heat maps,
and much more. Since Call of Duty Elite
was developed alongside Modern Warfare 3, many of the features
offer seamless interaction between the service and players' in-game
experience, including the ability to customize loadouts and sync
them to the game, customize in-game Clans, upload HD videos, and
find new friends from social Groups in-game. Call of
Duty Elite's premium tier adds the Modern
Warfare 3 DLC delivered monthly throughout the 9 month DLC season,
a constantly updated Program Guide of daily competitions for
virtual and real-world prizes, exclusive clan leveling and
competitions, access to the hotly anticipated Call of Duty
Elite TV and more. Annual membership is
available for $49.99, less than
$5 per month. Many features of
Call of Duty Elite are also backwards compatible with
Call of Duty: Black Ops, and will also support future
enabled versions of Call of Duty with one integrated platform.
Friday Night Fights, from executive producers
Ridley Scott and Tony Scott and director RJ Cutler, debuts this
Friday, November 11th on Call
of Duty Elite TV. Friday Night Fights features
real-life rivals taking it to the mat in Call of Duty: Modern
Warfare 3 multiplayer. Additional original programming from
digital content and production studio DumbDumb, the brainchild of
Will Arnett and Jason Bateman in partnership with Ben Silverman's multimedia powerhouse Electus,
is in the pipeline. View the complete Call of Duty
Elite TV programming schedule at
www.callofduty.com/elite.
Following the phenomenal success of the first-ever Call of
Duty fan celebration Call of Duty XP, Jeep®,
Mountain Dew, and Xbox 360 have continued to support Activision and
the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare saga.
For the second year in a row, the Jeep brand will produce a
2012 Wrangler Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Special
Edition vehicle for fans. While Mountain Dew is driving the
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 "Rank Up Your Game"
Double XP promotion – where fans get Double XP time in the game
with every purchase of specially marked packages of DEW. These
partnerships are components of an amazing multi-million dollar
marketing blitz that promises to make an already historic
entertainment launch even more memorable.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is rated "M"
(Mature) by the ESRB for Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense
Violence and Strong Language and is available now for the Xbox 360®
video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3
computer entertainment system, and Windows® PC. Call
of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for the Nintendo Wii, developed
exclusively for the platform by Treyarch, is also available for a
suggested retail price of $49.99.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Defiance for the
Nintendo DS™, developed exclusively for the platform by n-Space, is
rated "T" (Teen) by the ESRB for a suggested retail price of
$29.99.
For more information visit www.callofduty.com/mw3 and
www.callofduty.com/elite.
About Activision Publishing, Inc.
Headquartered in Santa Monica,
California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading
worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive
entertainment and leisure products.
Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United
Kingdom, France,
Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the
Netherlands, Australia,
South Korea, China and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision and
its products can be found on the company's website,
www.activision.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements:
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ACTIVISION, CALL OF DUTY and MODERN WARFARE are registered
trademarks and CALL OF DUTY MW3 is a trademark of Activision
Publishing, Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the
properties of their respective owners.
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trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. "PlayStation" is
a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Wii and
Nintendo DS are trademarks of Nintendo.
SOURCE Activision Publishing, Inc.