When news spread about GameStop breaking the street date on Modern Warfare 2, Chris Oliviera, the retailer's vp for corporate communications in Texas, contacted Kotaku to explain the situation. The exec confirms that GameStop indeed made the decision to break the street date, saying that it was "an effort to protect our customer base."

Here's his statement:

This past weekend, GameStop made the decision to break street date and sell reserved copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in select markets where other retailers had broken street date. Our decision followed many conversations with Activision and was an effort to protect our customer base.

Prior to that, Activision also contacted Kotaku saying, "Activision has not given any retailer permission to sell Modern Warfare 2 prior to the Nov. 10 street date. The company fully supports the Nov. 10 street date."

Modern Warfare 2 is/will be available for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

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Broken street date:

• You totally saw this coming: Modern Warfare 2 street date broken