Wed, Jun 24, 2009 | 16:00 BST

Modern Warfare 2 loses brand awareness without CoD name

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Modern Warfare 2 has lost a sizeable lump of brand awareness by dropping the Call of Duty moniker, tracking firm OTX has told Gamasutra.

Apparently, Infinity Ward and Activision may have damaged retail chances by up to 20 percent with the move.

“Up until the beginning of May, OTX had been tracking the title as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. More specifically, we asked a representative group of gamers in the U.S. whether or not they had heard of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,” said OTX’s Nick Williams.

“At that time, approximately 40 percent of all gamers in the U.S. claimed that they had heard of this title.”

He continued: “However, once it became clear that Activision was positioning the title as Modern Warfare 2, OTX removed ‘Call of Duty’ from the consumer survey, and the awareness levels dropped to 20 percent. In other words, the Call of Duty brand association essentially doubles the awareness for the game. That is quite a remarkable statistic.”

More through the link.

30 comments

#1

JonFE
24/06/09, 4:07 pm

Haven’t they reinstate the CoD moniker already? It was silly of them to drop it in the first place and after statistic analysis such this they would do well to reinstate it…

#2

TheDifficult3rdAlbum
24/06/09, 4:09 pm

Putting on my statistics pedant police hat, I should point out your story says retail chances would be affected “by up to 20%”.

In fact it would be “by up to 50%”, as recognition went from 40% down to 20% without the CoD tag.

Do I get a prize?

#3

Captain Fruitloop
24/06/09, 4:12 pm

I’m more astounded that 60% of US gamers HADN’T heard of the game, no matter what they’re calling it this week.

#4

Dr.Ghettoblaster
24/06/09, 4:13 pm

It makes sene to me. Just add “Call of Duty” in small font above the MW2 title and boom, more sales.

#5

Blerk
24/06/09, 4:14 pm

Well…. duh! I can’t quite figure out just which brainiac decided that throwing away your multi-million-dollar IP would be a ‘good idea’.

#6

Syrok
24/06/09, 4:16 pm

At least no one will complain about milking the franchise. ^.^

#7

NiceFellow
24/06/09, 4:21 pm

I guess they might have to spend an additional couple of hours adding Call of Duty to final artwork and title screens then.

#8

G1GAHURTZ
24/06/09, 4:32 pm

Nah, all you’ll get is that in the marketing campaign in the final couple of months, every trailer will start with “From the team that brought you Call of Duty 4″ or something…

Thing is, IW don’t want to be associated with Treyarch, and I can imagine the name dropping being a part of a pacifying deal from Acti to keep them happy.

The game will more than likely be marketed like no other game before anyway, so I wouldn’t be suprised if this ’40%’ who had heard of the COD game turns into 60-70% who know about MW2 by the time the game gets released.

They’ve practically done zero marketing so far apart from at trade shows up until now anyway…

A couple of TV adverts and a youtube frontpage is about it.

#9

Bringit
24/06/09, 4:34 pm

Surely this means Activision can have two brands, the Modern Warfare brand and the Call of Duty brand.

Not only does that mean both brands can co-exist, it also allows them to separate the two rather unique gaming experiences.

Modern Warfare is also far more mainstream than Call of Duty.

So perhaps Activision wants to devalue the brand in order to build it back up, to be a mainstream experience.

I personally feel the original Modern Warfare shouldn’t have had the Call of Duty Moniker.

It’s confusing to your everday consumer to release a modern COD one year and a WWII one the following year.

#10

Captain Fruitloop
24/06/09, 4:42 pm

That’ll be the less mainstream Call of of Duty, which is still in the charts, about seven months after its release?

The two games don’t have ‘unique gaming experiences’. They’re basically the same game, except MW has better guns, and in CoD you regularly get your bollocks bitten off by attack dogs.

#11

tenthousandgothsonacid
24/06/09, 4:51 pm

The other question, is what will Treyarch’s next iteration be called.

CoD 6 or CoD 7 ?

They may as well just lose the number from now on but just stick CoD in front of the title.

#12

Captain Fruitloop
24/06/09, 4:52 pm

CoD: World at War didn’t have a number. It’s already been dropped.

#13

No_PUDding
24/06/09, 4:53 pm

WOAH…. Bethesda acquired id SOftware…. News piece pelase!

#14

Dr.Ghettoblaster
24/06/09, 4:53 pm

Bringit, I think it makes PERFECT sense for the original MW to be a part of the COD branding. They just need to realize that COD doesn’t have to always be WW2. They should capitalize on ALL wars and not just the incredilby overdone WW2.

COD: Civil War
COD: Vietnam
COD: WW3 (hey, MW was fictional, why not?)
COD: Operation Desert Storm

These titles have potential to be spectacular. And, besides Vietnam, I can’t recall ever hearing of a Civil War game…

#15

Psychotext
24/06/09, 4:53 pm

Calm thyself pud. :D

#16

tenthousandgothsonacid
24/06/09, 4:54 pm

@CF Heh, didn’t realise that. Nice to see they took my advice ;)

#17

No_PUDding
24/06/09, 4:54 pm

What the fuck!? Calm? That’s some serious badassery there.

#18

DaMan
24/06/09, 4:58 pm

holy shit, they actually did.

#19

G1GAHURTZ
24/06/09, 5:00 pm

Civil war eh??

Yeah, I’m sure it must be really fun to stop, put a bullet in your musket, force it down, put the gun powder in, take aim, then finally get to fire the thing…

I wonder why no-one has thought of this for an FPS sooner!?

Man I can see th forums now… ‘THE MUSKET IS OP!!!’

#20

Dr.Ghettoblaster
24/06/09, 5:20 pm

Yup Civil War game would be cool. Got a problem with realism? War games don’t always have to be “fun”….there’s such a genre as simulations…

#21

G1GAHURTZ
24/06/09, 5:23 pm

I’ve got a problem with crap guns.

#22

Dr.Ghettoblaster
24/06/09, 5:24 pm

Use a knife.

#23

G1GAHURTZ
24/06/09, 5:25 pm

It’d be more fun than a musket.

#24

G1GAHURTZ
24/06/09, 5:33 pm

“War games don’t always have to be “fun”….there’s such a genre as simulations…”

Good job COD has never (ever, ever, ever, ever, ever!) been a simulation then!

Keep that boring stuff in Flashpoint!

#25

Daodan
24/06/09, 5:34 pm

I still wonder why they even did it. They could’ve foreseen that it’s just shooting yourself in the foot, removing the retardedly well-known brandname like that.

#26

Dr.Ghettoblaster
24/06/09, 5:50 pm

Sure thing giga, lets just keep flooding the market with WW2 games and modern guns then. No need for westerns and anything in our history prior to that right..too “boring”…

P.S. I think if ANYONE was gonna do pre-WW1, Civil War, muskets, cannons, bow and arrows, etc, RIGHT it’d be the COD franchise.

#27

G1GAHURTZ
24/06/09, 6:04 pm

Nah, don’t get me wrong… WW2 is totally done to death, and I hate it for FPS’s now.

I dunno… when I think about it, I suppose it’d be good for a single player campaign to have it in different times, including pre WW1, but I was just thinking about MP.

Can’t imagine being stuck running for cover in a 30 second reload animation while someone’s trying to shoot me at 2 rounds per minute…

#28

Bringit
24/06/09, 6:15 pm

This is a marketing decision.

Two brands. The Modern Warfare brand and the Call of Duty brand. Two multi-million selling franchises to place alongside Guitar Hero.

Makes perfect sense.

#29

MushroomStamp
24/06/09, 6:19 pm

You can call it the Lollipop factory and I’m still buying this game!

#30

Dr.Ghettoblaster
24/06/09, 8:29 pm

I hear ya man on the time thing though..

Lollipop factory….awesome.

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