In an unsurprising turn of events, a Call of Duty game is once again set to steamroll sales records and reign supreme as the best-selling game of the year. Both GameStop and Amazon have announced astronomical pre-order numbers, according to IGN.
"Consumer anticipation for Call of Duty: Black Ops II is tremendous. We are seeing the highest pre-orders in history. With its current pace, this Call of Duty is on track to break records and is likely to be our biggest game launch of all time," said Gamestop president Tony Bartel in a statement.
Back in May, IGN reported that Amazon's day one pre-orders for Black Ops II were 30 percent higher than Modern Warfare's day one pre-order stats, and ten times that of Black Ops 1.
In other Call of Duty news, Activision announced that the Elite subscription service will now be made free to the masses.
In an interview with IGN, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said, "We feel that Call of Duty is at its best when our community is united. That's why we're returning to four map pack drops next year, and also the reason why we're making services like leveling clans and Elite TV available to a wider Call of Duty community for Black Ops II, not just to premium Elite subscribers only. Our mission from the start with Elite has been to make multiplayer a more connected, social experience. For our premium members, we have accomplished that. We've been listening to the community and we've come to the conclusion that Elite has more value as a community wide platform to drive engagement and connectivity than as a paid members-only service."
Black Ops 2 launches Nov. 13 on Xbox 360 and PS3, with a Wii U release following shortly after on Nov. 18.