We look at what will be keeping all those gaming geeks home tomorrow.

It is Monday 9, 2009 and the world of gaming geeks sits on the event horizon of something big. In less than 24 hours, the world could see a huge outbreak of a hereto-unknown illness, the MW2 flu. Tens of thousands are expected to call in sick tomorrow around the world. Before you start looking for your vitamin C and the Germ-X hand sanitizer let us assure you, this flu is not cootie-related.

We are, of course, talking about tomorrow’s much anticipated release of Modern Warfare 2 from Activision. Well some people call it Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Of course, there are also those people calling it Call of Duty 6. It is all very confusing when you start to think too much about it. Even the developer, Infinity Ward, seems to have some doubts as to what the game is called. The preview box art reads “Modern Warfare 2”, but the trailer on the game’s official site is branded “Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2”. Maybe they will all get on the same page after the game comes out. Whatever you decide to call it one thing is certain; someone is going to call it a gold rush.

Visiti the official site for Modern Warfare 2 ...

Retailers estimate pre-orders alone for this title to be more than 2.5 million units. Oh yeah, that was “million” with an “m”. Nearly 2/3 of those reservations are for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 according to Kombo.com, showing the system’s dominance in co-op playing. However, the dramatic increases in sales since Sony lowered the price of the PlayStation 3 have driven pre-orders for that system to nearly a million units. All of which is in addition to first day, unreserved sales that can only be estimated to be a “butt-load”. With more than 10,000 outlets across the country hosting midnight release events sales are sure to be well beyond the pre-orders.

• Best Buy – over 500 stores
• Blockbuster – 20 stores
• GameStop – over 4,200 stores
• Wal-Mart – over 2,600 stores

These four national retailers alone account for over 7,300 outlets selling the title beginning at midnight. Add to that the countless local game stores hosting midnight sales and tournaments and you have a whole lot of geeks staying up late tonight. All of this adds up to what is being called the largest entertainment release to date. That would mean revenues exceeding Halo 3’s $180 million, Grand Theft Auto IV’s $310 million and eclipsing 2008’s #1 movie The Dark Knight’s $151 million. To reach more than $310 million retailers will have to sell roughly 5.2 million units tomorrow. That means there are sure to be a mess of empty chairs at your helpdesk tomorrow, so be prepared for that.

In case any of our readers are wondering, we LOVE the graphics in this new game (from what we have seen). If you are one of the 2.5-5 million lucky dogs that gets a copy of Modern Warfare 2 let us know what you think. We would love to hear from our readers on whether or not all the hype was worthwhile or not. Despite the recent arrival of a new PS3, it does not look like MW2 is going to be in the Kung Fu Dojo any time soon. Unless of course someone happened to send us a review copy (wink wink nudge nudge) …

- KFD -