Modern Warfare 2 will apparently retain the "
Call of Duty" brand on its box after all, in a last-minute reversal of Activision's plan to distinguish Infinity Ward's
Modern Warfare franchise as separate from the numbered
Call of Duty games.
Via Twitter, Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling
revealed the "first" copies of the game's box in a photo that showed the
Call of Duty moniker positioned, albeit not with particular emphasis, above the
Modern Warfare 2 title.
It's likely that consumer brand awareness fears stayed the company's hand at the last. The title was first introduced with the
Call of Duty branding still attached to its name, although by the time of the game's widely publicized and highly acclaimed E3 appearance, it had been billed as only
Modern Warfare 2 for some time.
A study released in mid-June from research firm OTX, however, had found consumer awareness of the title
dropped 20 percent since Activision disassociated it from the
Call of Duty brand.
"The
Call of Duty brand association essentially doubles the awareness for the game," said OTX at the time. "That is quite a remarkable statistic."
Activision has set a high bar for how it expects
Modern Warfare 2 to perform,
publicly promising "the biggest entertainment launch of all time." Analysts like Janco Partners' Mike Hickey have supported that assertion, projecting
the biggest launch of 2009 with a predicted 11.1 million units for Activision's fourth quarter alone.
The company may have ultimately decided that an untested box branding initiative with the bar set so high was too great a risk to take, as investors would have likely punished the stock had sales of the game failed to meet projections.
[
UPDATE: An official Activision spokesperson's comment
to weblog Kotaku explains the box titling for the game as follows: "Infinity Ward's
Modern Warfare 2 is the direct sequel to
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare... We have focused our attention on Modern Warfare in order to most effectively communicate the fact that this is the first true sequel in the
Call of Duty series."
"Infinity Ward, the original creators of the
Call of Duty franchise, has said from the beginning
Modern Warfare 2 resides in the
Call of Duty universe. This is reflected in the title's package."]
