Game retailer, GAME announced recently that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be playable for the first time ever in the UK at GAMEfest. Taking place in Birmingham NEC on September 16^th to 18^th, GAMEfest will offer UK gamers the opportunity to get some hands-on time with MW3 about two months ahead of its official UK release date of November 8^th. This comes, of course, as good news for those living near Birmingham—but it’s really only mild fan service—since Call of Duty XP takes place a little more than a week prior in L.A. and attendees get actual copies of the game to take home. What’s up with that, GAME?

Tickets for GAMEfest are available now in both GAME stores and online via the GAME website for only 10 pounds. You will need a GAME Reward Card to purchase a ticket.

Surprise!  It’s BIG!  Call of Duty: Black Ops has shattered every other previous first-day video game sales record—including the one set by that other Activision game, Modern Warfare 2 last year.  In North America and the UK alone, Black Ops has sold over 5.6 million copies.  That roughly translates to a sh*t-ton of money—or about $360 million.  And by the time you read this, many more thousands of copies will have been sold.  Activision’s top dog, Bobby “diamond jizz” Kotick, says that they’re also on track to beat the previous five-day record of $550 million set by MW2.

This stat is, of course, impressive, but doesn’t really come as a shock to those of us with common sense.  The hype-machine that is Call of Duty: Black Ops has been cranking for months now; all as more and more people around the globe purchased new consoles and hopped online for the first time with little to do.  This truly is the game the world’s been waiting for—and the numbers are proving that.  At this rate, Activision will own Microsoft by next Monday.  Can you imagine playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on a console built by Activision just for that purpose?  It’s not that farfetched.

Xbox Live had its busiest day ever last Tuesday.  And we’re pretty sure that Modern Warfare 2 coming out on the same day may have had something to do with the milestone.  Internal figures released by Activision indicate that MW2 has become the most successful launch in history across all forms of entertainment.  With an estimated 4.7 million copies sold on the first day in the U.S. and U.K. alone, it’s no surprise, really, that all of those people were anxious to get online and shoot at each other.  That bloodlust resulted in more than 2 million people playing on Xbox Live simultaneously—a landmark Microsoft’s pretty happy about.