The year's hottest gaming title, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, has been given the first ever video game premiere at London's West End.
Although famed for its red-carpet movie premieres, Westminster council granted permission for Activision's highly-anticipated title to become the first computer game to be given a West End launch.
Actors who provide voiceovers for the game - including Bill Murray and Kevin McKidd - were among the guests at a VIP event that swapped the glamour of Hollywood's a-list celebrities for men dressed up as soldiers.
Modern Warfare 2 is expected to smash existing sales records, with publisher Activision suggesting that three million copies could be sold this week in the UK alone. Retailer Amazon.co.uk claims to have received over 50 per cent more pre-orders than for Grand Theft Auto 4, the current record holder for opening-week sales.
Such is the demand that analysts are predicting that the latest in the Call of Duty series will claim an opening-week revenue that easily surpasses Hollywood's most successful movies - including the likes of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and SpiderMan 3.
Prior to the game's midnight launch across many UK stores, numerous retailers became subject to a price war sparked by the leading supermarkets. Despite a suggested retail price of £54.99, Sainsburys, ASDA, Tesco and Morrisons all offered sizable discounts, resulting in lengthy queues around the country as punters hoped to get their hands on the game for as little as £26.
Meanwhile, as consumers rush to get hold of Modern Warfare 2, the game's violent content has been condemned by Labour MP Keith Vaz, who states that "'it contains such scenes of brutality that even the manufacturers have put in warnings within the game telling people how they can skip particular scenes."
