Valve and Activision have teamed up and are offering gamers the chance to play the latest instalment in the Call of Duty franchise for free for a limited time period.
Activision, the publisher of the fast-selling video game and entertainment product of all time, seem to think that not enough people have played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Apparently, the staggering sales figures and the fact that Modern Warfare 3 has been at the top of the sales charts in the United States are irrelevant facts for the publisher.
So in an effort to increase their market share and appeal more to the demographic of gamers who use their PCs as their primary means of gaming, the publisher has joined forces with Valve.
Valve is the studio which runs the digital distribution and online gaming platform called Steam.
Steam happens to be the PC’s equivalent of the PlayStation Network or the Xbox LIVE Marketplace is the place to go if one wants to take part in online multiplayer action.
Marketed as the “Free Weekend” by Activision, gamers will be able to download and play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 free of cost this weekend.
There is a catch though as the download only features the multiplayer component of the record breaking game with the single player campaign cut out.
Having said that, no one really cares about the single player campaign of the game as the Modern Warfare games are popular because of their addictive multiplayer offering than anything else.
The offer will last until Monday, after which the ‘free’ bit of the offering will be withdrawn and gamers will have to pay for the download of the full game.
While it may be a one-night stand, or rather a one-weekend stand, with the game it could go a long way in terms of attracting more PC gamers to the Call of Duty series.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is currently the most played game on Steam and it will be interesting to see whether or not the modern military first-person shooter will be able to change that.
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