Modern Warfare 2 – The Savy Guide

09/11/2009 in Deals, Digital Distribution, News, PS3, Retail, Xbox 360

So in about 12 hours time, an event that is already being hailed as the biggest single human achievement of the last 200,000 years is going to unfold. Yes, the release of Modern Warfare 2, a game about shooting people with guns, is finally upon us.

But where to buy it from? Activision have bumped the RRP up to £55 for consoles, and £40 for PCs, but we all know retailers ignore RRPs anyway.

It seems that for the most part, the 360 and PS3 versions have pricing parity, and pretty much anywhere selling them both are doing so for the same price. The PC version is proving a bit harder to nail down.

Here’s the Savy Guide for getting it for cheap.

Where to buy it – Consoles
Here is some information that may be useful to you if you want to buy MW2:

Makro are selling it to Makro members for £20.

Order it now online for £26 from coolshop £26. Likely to be non-UK stock, so you can’t trade it in.360/PS3. They have just put the prices up.

£32 from Amazon. 360/PS3.

Asda are confirmed to be selling the 360/PS3 version for £32. Valid til the 13th.
Tesco are confirmed to be selling the 360/PS3 version for £25 when bought with another chart game (which isn’t a particularly good deal, since they are fairly expensive for most chart games).
Sainsburys are confirmed to be selling the 360/PS3 version for £26. Valid til the 15th. It also seems some stores are letting you phone and reserve. Store locator with phone numbers here.

I do not yet have confirmed prices for Morrisons, Toys R Us or anywhere else, if you find some evidence of pricing, please let me know.

I also spoke to my local Gamestation, and they said they will not budge at all on their price of £39.99.

The real interesting thing here is this:
Should you go to a Currys, which are selling the game for £44.99 on 360/PS3, then use their price match policy, you should be able to get the game for only £24.11. This is what I intend to do. PC World will match Asda’s price, bringing their own price down to £30.71, but they don’t price match Sainsburys.

Where to buy it – PC
This is a difficult one. Coolshop (who I can vouch for) are selling it for £24.99 delivered. Some people who have received their games early from Coolshop have reported that they have been getting a “Not for sale in the UK” version. Whilst Valve have deactivated some games when they have been from imported serials, they have never done this within the EU, and indeed EU law would prevent them.

I have not heard anything about any other retailers offering good prices on it. The retail version comes with a serial that you plug into Steam, and it gets added to your Steam account, and whilst retail serials won’t activate on Steam right now, they will by tomorrow. As and when I hear UK retailers discounting it, I’ll update this post.

As far as digital distribution goes, only Steam will be selling it, because every other major outlet have decided not to, because of its Steamworks integration.

This comes as a bit of a surprise to me, since Direct2Drive already sell several games which require Steam, such as Saints Row 2, Defense Grid and Zeno Clash.

It’s hard to know what side to root for. On the one hand, I definitely think that competition, and fair competition, is beneficial for consumers and essential for ensuring that as consumers shift towards digital distribution, they don’t sacrifice their consumers rights and power.

On the other hand, there are a lot of reasons why developers of all shapes and sizes might want to use Steamworks. I’m pretty sure that Audiosurf would not have been as successful as it was without Steamworks, and it will have probably made developing MW2 for the PC easier for Infinity Ward.

One important fact that seems to have been forgotten in the discussion of the MW2 boycott so far is that Valve do not force games that use Steamworks to have a presence on the Steam marketplace. 2K’s NBA09 uses Steamworks, but it is not available on the Steam marketplace at all. If Activision decided to, they could have made the game an exclusive with one of the other outlets, and still used Steamworks. The only reason most games that use Steamworks also sell through the Steam marketplace is that it is cost effective for them to do so.

Additional information
If you have preordered it from somewhere, thinking that it would save you money, then firstly, next time anyone in GAME asks you to preorder something, tell them “No, it will be cheaper in the supermarkets”. Secondly, here is what you can do.

If you preordered it in store somewhere, as long as you keep the game sealed and keep your receipt, you should be able to return it for a full discount.

If you ordered online, as long as you keep the game sealed and keep your receipt, then according to the UK distance selling regulations, you will be able to return your game to the retailer for a full discount.

If you have already got it, or want to get it at a midnight launch and play through the night, so you want to open it before the supermarkets or Currys open, here is something that should work. If you have one opened copy of the game bought for a higher price, and the receipt, head along to Currys, buy the game for their discounted price, and keep it sealed. Then you should be able to return the sealed copy you got from Currys to the other retailer, with the other receipt. You end up essentially paying the lower price.