Modern Warfare 3 has been available for barely more than a day, but Activision’s powerhouse sequel is wasting no time breaking the records established by Call of Duty: Black Ops. According to Activision, Modern Warfare 3 now holds the record for the most pre-orders and biggest day-one shipments ever.

Modern Warfare 3 marks a number of “firsts” for the wildly popular series. As the fist Modern Warfare game developed after Jason West and Vince Zampella left Infinity Ward to form Respawn Entertainment, MW3 has a lot to prove. Though critics have been kind to the game (check out Game Rant’s Modern Warfare 3 review), it has received dismal Metacritic user scores.

Modern Warfare 3 also marks Sledgehammer Games’ first involvement with the Call of Duty franchise. Though comprised of industry veterans (Sledgehammer General Manager Glen Schofield previously headed up Visceral Games, developer of Dead Space), the team at Sledgehammer Games had no illusions about the challenges – and pitfalls – associated with working on the most anticipated game of 2011.

Sledgehammer Games COO Michael Condrey:

Based on the game’s record-breaking first day, Condry has every reason to be proud of the work Sledgehammer did on Modern Warfare 3. Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg estimates that 1.5 million fans worldwide flocked to midnight store openings in an attempt to start playing the game as early as possible. Too bad the Call of Duty: Elite registration problems may have put a damper on some of the fun.

“I’d be dishonest if I said I didn’t feel the pressure.”

“…to be working on MW3, with 30M+ fans demanding nothing less than an amazing sequel to MW2 … yeah, we knew it was going to take everything we had to give. We also knew that it was an opportunity of a lifetime.”

“It’s been quite a two-year journey and it certainly took a herculean team effort. I could not be more proud of how everyone on the Sledgehammer Games development team stepped up to the challenge.”

Ranters, did you pre-order Modern Warfare 3 or attend any of the midnight launches? What do you think of Sledgehammer’s contribution to the game?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is available now for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS, and PC.

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Source: Seeking Alpha [via CVG], Industry Gamers