How big is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 going to be when it hits shelves on Tuesday? Big enough to inspire a pair of daring morning heists in France, where thieves made off with thousands of copies of the game.
According to a story in French daily newspaper Le Parisien , two delivery trucks carrying as many as six thousand copies of Activision's holiday blockbuster were allegedly hijacked Saturday morning. The truck carried about €780,000 ($1.1-million) worth of product.
Both robberies occurred in the suburbs of Paris.
The first reportedly involved a car colliding with a delivery truck. A pair of men armed with knives and wearing gas masks allegedly doused two delivery men with tear gas, then left them on the side of the road as they made their getaway in the truck.
Reports of the second case say a trio of men, one armed with a handgun, forced a delivery truck driver to stop and exit his vehicle. One of the bandits then climbed into the truck and drove away while the other escaped in a car.
Aside from the gassing, it seems none of the delivery men were physically injured.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – parts of which, coincidentally, are set in the French capital – will almost certainly be the best-selling game of 2011. Last year's entry in the military-themed first-person shooter series sold seven million copies in 24 hours and brought in more than $1-billion in its first six weeks.
With a franchise value north of 10 figures, it's no wonder nogoodniks are trying to carve out a piece of the action.
I'm pretty sure it's only a matter of time before the whole thing goes meta, with thieves attempting to steal trucks filled with copies of a heist game in which players play thieves stealing trucks filled with games.