So I went down to the official Modern Warfare 3 launch in London (Oxford Street) on Monday evening, and to be fair Activision and Microsoft put on a good show, I just couldn’t help but feel EA missed a trick here. As you do at these launches, I got talking with some friends in the queue and thought that it would have been awesome to see EA make an appearance in some capacity, to crash the party so to speak, which got me thinking.

How awesome would it have been, with like thirty minutes to go before the clock strikes twelve, to pull up on Oxford Street, themeblaring, with soldiers jumping out the Battlefield 3 tank (they brought one along with them to the launch two weeks ago), handing out free copies to everyone in line (around 750 people)? Totally stealing the show away from Activision in the process.

Now, it would be stupid to assume gamers would walk away from the queue they’ve been standing in for hours, go home with their new copy of Battlefield 3 and live happily ever after, but putting copies of the competition in the hands of the competitor’s user base wouldn’t have be a bad thing – would it? Some might already own Battlefield 3 yes, but for a lot of people in that queue Modern Warfare 3 will be one of the only gaming purchases they’ll make this year – trust me I was there. Better yet, a stunt like that would get people talking, tweeting and definitely steal at least a bit of the limelight away from Activision’s money making machine, especially on the gaming sites and in the morning papers. Who knows, you might even get some converts from it. If not for the new players a stunt like that would bring in, it’s something that would have been worth the press alone right?

Going off EA’s aggressive marketing prior to the game’s release, I, for one wouldn’t have put it past them, and with thirty minutes left to go I was still checking my watch like an anxious kid, waiting for EA to land one final blow. Unfortunately, this never happened

http://www.bitthirsty.com/ea-left-me-disappointed-at-modern-warfare-3-launch

No

Yes

Tacky shit like this makes me cringe, I'd like to see less of this stuff not more.

So let me get this straight. You were at a midnight launch for MW3. Thinking it would be a great idea if EA crashed the party. Knowing you would have a bigger chance of winning the lottery than this happening, you're now disappointed. I can understand being disappointed with EA's customer service, but this? This is a horrible waste of a forum thread and my time.

@Sooty: I'm not a fan of the classless act EA have been pulling over the last couple of months. Saying that, this would be totally in line with the rest of that shit, they might as well have gone out on a high.

@pw2566ch: Clearly you didn't detect the tone of the post. Yeah, I'm actually really disappointed, feeling almost suicidal...

@realph said:

@Sooty: I'm not a fan of the classless act EA have been pulling over the last couple of months. Saying that, this would be totally in line with the rest of that shit, they might as well have gone out on a high.

Yeah, start a nerd riot.

Guessing the EA lawyers would find it less amusing.

You're supposed to spend your marketing budget before your game comes out. What purpose would that possibly serve except to waste money?

That is a terrible idea and in general I hate midnight launches. They are no fun and it gets to feel very awkward. Anytime I pre-order a game they mention the midnight launch and how they are getting people from the company to give out free swag... I rather just pick up the game later in the day and leave.

@Hunkulese said:

You're supposed to spend your marketing budget before your game comes out. What purpose would that possibly serve except to waste money?

There will be another Call of Duty next year, but there won't be another Battlefield? In other words, long haul brah... long haul.

@Hunkulese: We're still within Battlefield 3's launch period so why would it be a waste of money?

Definitely a hoot to imagine, but it would have been far less amusing in reality for any and all involved (save for the recipients of the freebies).

free? ya out your mind , ea wouldnt give anything for free , , as we all know them and their roster 60 dollar upgrades each yr for madden ,

expecting free stuff today ya not happening , you really expect them to go bankrupt

you cant give out games for free if it costed you millions to make ,

maybe a few copies but thousands ya that wouldnt sound right, thats like buying the game used yet people say all the time, that buying used hurts developers so how does getting the game free help them? fail to see logic in your explaination sure it may hurt activision sales wise a little but does not help your financial situation,

the only way gamers will switch to bf3 or even better get both is if ---- well you know they meet their needs,

thats hard to do at 60 bucks a pop short campaignes and no split screen better be a perfect game if it is gonna out sell mw 3 ,because ya thats impossibile,

whats funny is goldeneye reloaded just launched a few days ago , a good competitor for cod made by the same company lol , but we will see

Um......NO

They should have showed up in a real tank and started blowing the shit out of everything, show them the power of the Frostbite engine.

They have official launch parties?

@Bucketdeth: yes

I think there has been enough of the Battlefield fanboys bashing MW 3 on Metacritic

The op sounds really like an okay guy, but there has been enough ugliness with the marketing and such. Anyways, somebody probably would have hurt or killed somebody else, the dudebro juices get flowing enough....

this kind of marketing is sickening.

@realph said:

@pw2566ch: Clearly you didn't detect the tone of the post. Yeah, I'm actually really disappointed, feeling almost suicidal...

Yeah, I don't think I'm exactly getting all of this. So I'm just going to just take back my comment and walk away like nothing happened.

tbh i don't think bf3 has much to brag about. i'm already burned out on the few maps you get, and bad company 2 is simply a more varied game with better maps and destruction that actually alters the battlefield

Nope, stupid.

That would be pretty disgusting. Its funny to "think" about, but in reality that would be completely horrible.

Tanks are only good for blowing shit up, not handing out games.

No. I think the marketing of BF3 was absolutely pathetic. Not taking me as a consumer seriously.

I only have been to one midnight launch and that was only to show my respect to Bungie. Beyond that I never want to see another stupid midnight launch ever again.

They waste both the developers and the publishers money. Just think about how much money they had to spend for some tank, they could have just as easily been there themselves and simply give you the game. And people wonder why games cost so much these days.

I guess I'll be "that guy" and just say it:

The vehicle in the original post isn't a tank, it's an Archer self-propelled gun (British artillery piece, retired in the 80's I believe).

Modern tanks are much bigger, much louder, and probably too dangerous to bring out into a public setting like a pre-launch event.