This is Modern Warfare 2's official launch party

It seems a bit silly to have a launch party for a game that pretty much "launched" already. NYC became host to the official Modern Warfare 2 launch, where enthusiasts were able to wait on line for their chance to play the game. After the festivities, they could walk one block away to GameStop to buy a copy of the game at midnight -- and no sooner.

Funnily, a good percentage of people waiting on line already had a copy of the game. Why bother going to the launch event, then? Perhaps the swag proved too enticing: XL Modern Warfare 2 t-shirts and the chance to oogle at IGN's Jessica Chobot were more than enough reason to wait on line for upwards of an hour.

Considering this is arguably the biggest game release of the year, the event ended up being a bit underwhelming. Other than the dozens of Xbox 360 demo kiosks (with nary a PS3 in sight), Activision didn't offer much else to see or do. For the sake of this blogger, a more "ridiculous" marketing budget would have offered a far more spectacular launch party, one filled with fireworks, ninjas and dedicated servers.