It’s only fitting that with last year’s Call of Duty iteration, Black Ops, and Infinity Ward’s last most recent, Modern Warfare 2, being superseded by Modern Warfare 3, that Activision send out its extremely lucrative franchises out in style.

Keeping that idea in mind, Infinity Ward has announced a double XP weekend for both Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops, which will begin this Friday and run until next Tuesday. What’s so important about double XP in two games that will soon be placed on the back burner you ask? As it turns out, quite a lot.

In Modern Warfare 3, Infinity Ward has gone back to the drawing board with prestiging and come up with a new feature called the Prestige Shop. In the Prestige Shop, players will be able to spend prestige tokens, one earned for every time the player prestiges in-game, on unlocks like an extra class, higher ranked weapons, and special emblems.

But not only that, Modern Warfare 3 is going to be rewarding those players who have already prestiged in any of the next-gen Call of Duty games — from Modern Warfare all the way to Black Ops — with a token per prestige level. And that's why this Double XP weekend is so important.

Here’s Infinity Ward Creative Strategist Robert Bowling to talk more about the Prestige Shop and the tokens:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQLepILgMKk&feature=channel_video_title

With Modern Warfare 3 set to release in just under two weeks it’s high time that gamers get their fill of Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops — purchase any DLC that looks enticing or put the finishing touch on a veteran campaign run-through — before a new game completely dominates their life.

Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games are doing some pretty interesting things with the single player, multiplayer, and co-op in MW3, each a logical progression of the iterations that preceded them. But, it’s always best not to forget where a franchise is coming from, which is why this final XP weekend will be a perfect send-off.

What do you think of Modern Warfare 3’s Prestige Shop? Are there any gamers out there who would now consider prestiging since there is more of a reward in it than just an extra custom class and an emblem?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 releases November 8, 2011 for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Source: CVG