As daylight faded over London's Leicester Square on November 9, 2009, a familiar occurrence was taking place.
Temporary fencing punctuated by thickset men in fluorescent all-weather jackets formed a perimeter, on the outside of which a crowd gathered.
As the head count increased so, too, did the atmosphere of anticipation; tourists and office workers unified in their celebrity-spotting fervour. On the inside of the security barrier, the atmosphere was tangible, fuelled by the knowledge that something unprecedented was taking place.
This was no ordinary premiere. The carpet was camouflage print rather than red and the real stars in attendance had never been on film.
The production being premiered was Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (MW2), the sequel to the highest-selling videogame of 2007 (with more than 13 million copies sold), and it soon earned the kind of sales figures that makes movie publishers blanch.
"Modern Warfare has exceeded our hopes and expectations, grossing an estimated $550-million (R4-billion) worldwide within the first five days of launch," said Andrew Brown, the UK general manager of Activision - the publishing house responsible for releasing the game - adding that it made MW2 "the most successful launch in the history of entertainment".
To put those figures into perspective, last year's highest grossing cinema release, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, took $394m within the same period at the box office.
Given this accomplishment, the decision to launch the game at Leicester Square was hardly surprising. As men in army fatigues marched behind an armoured car before posing for the assembled photographers, the scene seemed a fitting celebration of the talent that went into making the game - and all that money.
However, as the game's programmers followed in the wake of the faux armed forces, the crowds began to disperse. The knowledge that an A-list celebrity was not about to make an appearance had permeated through their ranks, an adroit example of the gulf between the film and games industries.
One organisation looking to boost the games industry's reputation is Elspa, the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association.
"We are working to continue to raise the profile of the massive role which the games industry plays, in terms of its economic contribution and how it is shaping popular culture and leisure time," said Mike Rawlinson, Elspa's director-general. "Games are relevant to everyone."
Brown agrees: "It's almost guaranteed that we'll see games being represented as a key media in their own right in the future."
If games are to take their place next to the film, music and book industries in the eyes of the mainstream media, then the perception that games are a degenerate source of entertainment for troubled teenagers must first be remedied.
"Nearly all of the mediums that are a now a staple part of our culture have been unfairly demonised at some stage in history - including television, music and literature," said Brown.
"There are around 271 million gamers in the US and Europe alone, and the fastest-growing market in the industry is 25- to 34-year-olds."
One developer looking to exploit the buying power of this age bracket is K Games. Its next release, BioShock 2, is one of this year's more likely contenders to rack up high sales. The first BioShock sold more than 2 million copies in less than 12 months in 2007; its sequel, which hits the shelves on February 9, will be looking to eclipse those figures.
Anybody unfamiliar with the changing face of games might be surprised at the thought-provoking setting and plot of the BioShock titles. Designed to explore Ayn Rand's philosophy of objectivism, voiced most famously in her work Atlas Shrugged, the original BioShock followed the struggle for power between two would-be dictators for control of the underwater city Rapture, an Eden for the world's great thinkers, artists and industrialists.
In BioShock 2 a new dictator, Sophia Lamb, has assumed control of the city and altruism is the new philosophy being exalted.
"Sophia Lamb is (in part) based on Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill, two altruistic philosophers who had a strong cause for the greater good but to a different extreme," says Jordan Thomas, the creative director of the game.
A creation as intricate and intelligent as Rapture doesn't happen overnight; a 100-strong team has worked for more than two years on BioShock 2, keen to evoke and evolve the successful formula of the original. All areas of the game must be enhanced; from the distinctive art deco-themed environments, impressive character intelligence - which creates the illusion of playing within a living, breathing city - and captivating storyline.
Despite this determination to make BioShock 2 an engrossing experience, enjoyable as much for its commentary on altruism as its volatile action sequences, it is still a video game, and is judged as such. "Many of us grew up playing games with a simple interface and as time has gone on that interface has complexified," explains Thomas. "Now playing a game like BioShock 2, while we have made significant strides towards accessibility, is still something that would overwhelm my mum."
This issue of accessibility is one that should be solved in time. Elspa's latest surveys indicate that the average UK games player is 33. As that age goes up and the younger gamers of today grow up, games are sure to be targeted at an ever-growing audience.
When this change takes place, and games compete ever more closely with movies for column inches and hard cash, perhaps Leicester Square games launches might become the norm rather than the exception.
As for BioShock 2, does Jordan Thomas someday hope to see the game's player-character, the lumbering, robot-like Big Daddy plodding down the red carpet?
"I think he'd deserve it, he's been through a lot!" he says with a grin. - The Independent