GDC: Modern Warfare 2 drops the “Call of Duty” bit

Maybe they want to distance themselves from the WW2 aspect of Call of Duty.

Well it was either that or:

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Two

or

Call of Duty Five: Modern Warfare Two

either way, what with Call of duty Two: Big Red One… we’re talking final score

Will it use a modified Call of Duty 4 engine, or a completely new one I wonder?

Will I get to kill Russians?

Seems a bit odd ditching the highly successful franchise name.

I think that Modern Warfare is a new franchise name.

I’m a little baffled as to why they’ve done this, to be honest.

I’m not surprised in one sense – if they want to continue numbering the COD games, it’s going to get confusing when it’s switching dev teams and timelines – but this could affect sales. COD is the brand everyone knows – will taking that away harm sales of Modern Warfare 2 among the less gaming-savvy? Granted, there’ll be a big marketing push to raise awareness nearer the time, but you do get some, shall we say, less regular gamers who like to stick with what they know. Or what they think they know.

As was just put to me, “Sounds like hubris.”

I don’t see anyone getting confused about the lack of CoD. I regularly refer to it as Modern Warfare, so this works fine with me. Plus having two numbers in the title would make you feel like you are translating Japanese or something, a la Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Imagine Call of Duty 8: Future Warfare Next Advancement 3…

@ Mad-elph – you’ve clearly never been in GAME when someone’s asked for a Sony Wii, or ‘that game where you shoot things you know the one on telly’ or Asian’s Creed (yes, really). Some people are dumb. And some people will look at the box and see no Call of Duty name and not buy it. Sad, perhaps, but unfortunately true.

Like I say, Activision will market the shit out of it and make sure people know it’s from the makers of Call of Duty and it’s still Call of Duty but it’s not called Call of Duty any more.

Not sure it’s that good an idea. All the people I know who buy these games religiously know them as COD (like the fish).

Im sure the 12 million people that bought it and loved the first one, are going to know that the second part is coming out and will buy it.

they can call it anything they want, as long as its a sequel to the first and made by the same people.

I don’t think it was a good move on them but sure why not?

This would be a bad idea….but people will probably recognize it with just Modern Warfare 2. Even though im sure most people don’t even know who the developer is.

I think the impact CoD4:MW made gives Activision enough reason to exploit “Call of Duty” and “Modern Warfare” as two separate franchises. Besides which, as others have stated, it was getting a bit messy.

Perhaps Infinity Ward will take charge of “Modern Warfare” and Treyarch will adopt “Call of Duty” full time.

OR

Maybe in MW2 you ain’t following no call of no stinking duty. You’re a mad bad mofo with a bunch of guns and you don’t play by the rules. You’re like a digital Jack Bauer. You do what HAS to be done even if it means sacrificing your honour and adherance to duty. YOU HAD NO CHOICE. It’s the only chance you had. You did what was necessary.

BIP BOP BIP BOP BIP BOP

just show me some real info

@ that_happy_cat: Why not just ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2′? CoD:WaW didn’t have a number in it, innit.

It just seems a bit mental to piss away a brand just after it achieves mass market recognition. But then again, Konami successfully changed ISS to PES without it affecting sales in the slightest, so what the fuck do I know?

I’m pretty sure when this game is released, people are still going to refer to it as ‘Call of Duty’. For example, when talking to friends in parties/chat/real life/whatever, people are still going to say; “Anyone want to play some COD?” not “Anyone want to play some Modern Warfare 2?”

When they advertise this 2 shit they will obviously say ‘The makers of the fantastic 9 out of 10 bla bla bla Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare presents Modern Warfare 2
So ppl are guna guess its basicly the same

The words “Call of Duty” won’t really matter that much IMO.

It looks as though they’re sticking with exactly the same brand style anyway, so it’s likely that if you’ve seen COD4, you will recognise all or most of the branding in MW2 as being from the same franchise.

Anyway, it looks to me that IW must have developed a pretty big dislike of all things Treyarch. I reckon this move is down to pure rivalry, and not wanting Treyarch to get any praise or recognition out of the game that IW would consider to be their product alone.

Anyone who’s ever worked in a studio that has a rival that develops a similar game will tell you how much of a big deal one-upmanship becomes between them on an almost daily basis.

You only have to look at 402′s outburst where he seemed to mock the Nazi zombie mode in WaW for a clear example.

The new title is Modern Warfare 2: Sea of Dreams.