When a chain with 6,200 stores says that they've never had a game with as much pre-orders, that's gotta say a lot about how much demand there is for a game. Such were the words of GameStop's executive VP for merchandising and marketing, Tony Bartel, about Modern Warfare 2. In fact, the anticipation for the game is so massive that they're expecting the game's release to be "the biggest entertainment launch of all time."

Sharing a few words with Game Hunters, Bartel revealed that Modern Warfare 2's launch next week would be record-breaking. "By all indicators, we anticipate Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be the biggest entertainment launch of all time," he said. "As of today, the number of pre-order reservations we've taken for the game is the highest for any title we've ever sold in our 6200 store network."

Big words, especially considering that he used "entertainment," not simply limiting his statement to gaming. Though it'd be difficult to scale and measure the launching of various forms of entertainment media, it's safe to put the Modern Warfare 2 release in the It's-Pretty-Damn-Big category. At any rate, it seems that the GameStop exec was only hyping the affair up with that statement.

Fact remains, however, that GameStop has not had a game with so many pre-orders - a clear indication of demand (or quality of pre-order swag). We'll be keeping tabs on the sales once Modern Warfare 2 launches on November 10th for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

---

More on Modern Warfare 2:

• Pachter: Modern Warfare 2 will sell at least US$ 500 mill in the first week