So what's it going to be Activision? Call of Duty, or no Call of Duty? Via a recent twitter post, Robert Bowling of Infinity Ward revealed the official cover art for Modern Warfare 2 with a blurb saying, "Shit just got real." But as fans were quick to jump on, the game has now returned to the original title of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
For the last few months Infinity Ward's sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was simply going by Modern Warfare 2, most likely in an attempt to move themselves away from what Treyarch and Activision where doing with the Call of Duty franchise, namely returning it to its World War II roots. However, market analysis might be the root cause for the name switch back to the original title as suggested that the dropping of the "Call of Duty" title would remove a lot of the title's "brand awareness" and result in lower sales than expected.
And this kind of makes sense. If a child who loved the original Modern Warfare simply told his parental guardian to get him the latest "Call of Duty" for his birthday, said parent probably wouldn't consider "Modern Warfare 2" as the game their child was looking for. However, paste "Call of Duty" on the box and problem solved.
Activision has also be proactive in explaining the situation by sending around a statement in regards to the name switcharoo saying:
"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."
So there you have it. And no matter what the title ends up being, even if it's switched yet again to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Electric Boogaloo, odds are no one will care once they've put the disc in their console of choice and begun to play what will surely be an awesome game.
