Retailers that we spoke with confirm that they are now officially accepting pre-orders for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 which has a scheduled release date of November 8th.

According to those in the retail trenches, they are starting by accepting pre-orders for the standard edition of the game for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. These friends, however, whisper to us with a wink and a nod that they expect at least one special edition version of the game to be part of the release plan, if not two special edition versions, according to what they are hearing from distribution sources.

All that is really left is for Activision to officially confirm the November 8th release date and announce the special edition version(s) of the game beyond the standard edition. It is pretty much a foregone conclusion at this point that once Activision confirms November 8th as their release date, Electronic Arts will then announce the release date for Battlefield 3, which is something a lot of people are looking forward to.