After months of waiting, the World’s most eagerly anticipated video game has finally been released onto the market on 10th November. Over 10,000 stores in North America, and over 300 in the UK, opened at midnight for hardcore gaming fans, some queuing for several hours in a bid to be the first to own a copy.

Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision, the game’s developers, described it as “one of the largest entertainment launches of any media of all time”. On the first day alone, analysts predict that it could easily sell as many as 5 million copies, with an estimated total of 7 million in the first week, amounting to £300 million in revenue.

For the uninitiated, Call Of Duty is a wartime combat game where the player controls their character from the first-person perspective, carrying out missions in various locations, alongside other team members which can be controlled by the games console or PC, or by other human players.

There have been 11 releases to date, starting from the very first Call Of Duty game, released only for the PC, in January 2003, and subsequently evolving it’s gameplay and storyline over sequels released on Nintendo GameCube, Sony PSP, Playstations 2 and 3, Xbox, Nintendo DS and Wii and, perhaps the most significant, Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

Internet search activity around the game’s release has been frenzied, Google Trends showing a three-fold rise in searches for “Call Of Duty Modern Warfare” in the week prior to launch, and a monthly global average of 823,000 keyword searches for the same search phrase, reported on Google’s Keyword Tool.

Activision’s online advertising campaign has been largely centred around it’s Youtube trailer which has received over 2 million views, and it has also run an official Facebook page with over 130,000 fans.

If you’re looking to purchase a copy of the game online, a cursory UK search on Google for “Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2” will point you in the direction of Play.com, ShopTo.net and SimplyGames.com via natural search, and Play.com, Game.co.uk and Argos.co.uk in paid search.

According to figures published on vgchartz.com, the top selling console games Worldwide in October 2009 were:

1 ) Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo Wii)
2 ) Forza Motorsport 3 (Xbox 360)
3 ) Wii Sports (Nintendo Wii)
4 ) Tekken 6 (Playstation 3)
5 ) Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Playstation 3)
6 ) Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo Wii)
7 ) Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 (Playstation 3)
8 ) Borderlands (Xbox 360)
9 ) Grand Theft Auto – Episodes From Liberty City (Xbox 360)
10 ) Mario And Sonic At The Olympics (Nintendo Wii)

With competition for online retailers fierce at this time of year, search and social media plays an ever more important role in the online marketing mix. Gary Collins, CEO, at Status Media, a digital agency based in the UK, commented, “I’m a big fan of Call of Duty on the Xbox! Online retail is the fastest growing area of retail with brands investing heavily in channels such as PPC, SEO, banner ads, affiliates and customer engagement strategies. Status Media is uniquely positioned to drive online retail sales with innovative solutions. For example our link building solution helps sites to rank in Google for chosen keywords and through our online lead generation channels you can drive awareness of offers and vouchers for Christmas”.

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