OK, so picture this: you're making a game. It's a sequel. In fact, it's a highly anticipated addition to an almost spotless series, and is in particular the direct follow on from one of the best received games, both commercially and critically, of the past 5 years. What you have here is essentially a license to print money: a game that will sell like hotcakes made by Jesus himself, almost regardless of the quality of the game itself. So what do you do?

Well, I'll tell you what you don't do: don't ask Activision Blizzard for advice.

I am, of course, referring to Modern Warfare 2. A game that was destined to be a bestseller before it was even announced, but which the company seem determined to drive into the ground. Let's take a look at what they've done:

 1) The price hike.

They could potentially have got away with this a few years ago, but we're facing the worst economic situation since before most of your target audience was even born, so now is not the time to raise the RRP of your game. Heck, they could even probably have got away with it if they'd just done it quietly: when people got to the counter on release day, they'd have been annoyed at having to shell out an extra few dollars, but by that point it'd be too late, they'd buy it anyway. Rather than take this route, however, Activision Blizzard decided the best thing to do would be to shout about it months in advance, just to make sure people have enough time to get annoyed about it. Sure a lot of people will still buy it despite this, but they will lose a number of sales, no doubt. If nothing else, it'll drive a lot of people to wait and buy it second hand for less - which, considering how much development companies moan about second hand sales, you'd think would be something they'd want to avoid.

Someone needs to teach Activision Blizzard simple maths: a metric ton of copies sold at a high price comes out to the same amount of profit as fewer copies sold at an even higher price, but the higher price comes with the added bonus of ill will from the fans. Strike one.

2) No special edition for those who purchase it on PC.

I genuinely cannot understand the thinking - if any - behind this decision. Piracy is (apparently) a huge problem on the PC, so they remove any possibility of PC players getting the rather fantastic looking extras - you know, those bits you can't download for free? Even taking piracy out of the equation, they're just telling a portion of their customer base "No! You can't spend extra money on this product (except the extra we put on the RRP!) You may only buy the cheapest version!" Does that sound like just plain bad business sense to anyone else?

3) No dedicated servers.

Again, a ridiculous decision as it will limit the serious competitive play, which previous Call of Duty titles - particularly Modern Warfare - have done so well with. Infinity Ward (the developers) have justified this by saying that they have replaced it with the matchmaking system to make it easier for the casual players, who are apparently confused by dedicated server lists, which is fair enough (if a slightly depressing commentary on the intelligence of your average gamer) if true, but why not just have both? It's not like it would cost them anything extra. Again, this will cost them sales, either in sales that are outright lost, or people who are driven to piracy because they feel that they're only getting half a game.

So there we have it: Activision Blizzard have taken a game almost impervious to criticism and negative press, and done their best to royally piss off a good portion of their potential customer base; reverse alchemy, turning gold into shit.

And while we're on the topic of amazing skills, here's another one: the power of prediction. I predict that this game will underperform (sales wise) on PC, Activision Blizzard will blame it on piracy, and will use it as justification for making the series console only from now on.

Let's meet back here in a year, see if I'm right.