| Set On Stun |

The moment that Infinity Ward announced the sequel to their mega-hit Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, some people have noticed that they’ve dropped the Call of Duty brand from Modern Warfare 2.  This never seemed to be a big deal to gamers who loved the Modern Warfare franchise.  Although it did cause some people to scratch their heads and wonder why they’d drop the Call of Duty brand, a recognized and loved brand throughout the gaming population.

Kotaku reported and posted the press release that followed the release of the website and trailer for Modern Warfare 2.  Some people questioned why this would happen, but overall the news of the release was primarily buzzing inside the gaming community.

Screenshot from the Modern Warfare 2 site.

At E3 09, there was a massive poster outside the convention center that showed only the date, the iconic modern warrior and “Infinity Ward”.  Again, not branding itself as a Call of Duty successor.

Again, this was never really a big deal to gamers.  Yet there were a few things that were most likely happening behind the scenes.

With any game release, especially one that has such a long and rich history of success, of brand awareness and user loyalty as both Infinity Ward and Call of Duty, the goal had to be to not only meet but exceed the success of the first Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.  In marketing, we call that a “no-brainer”.

With any pre-release campaign, the commercial outlets need cover art (although this is generally thought of as a place holder and not the “official cover”).  The pre-release cover art (as you can see in my Amazon widget on the right –>) again, reinforced the dropping of the Call of Duty brand.

Here it is for the PS3 cover:

Pre-order cover art for the Modern Warfare 2 PS3 box (Sans Call of Duty)

Gamasutra put out an article last month that showed some interesting statistics about brand awareness & purchase intent for Modern Warfare 2.

• After the announcement, 40% of gamers asked responded they’d heard of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″.
• After dropping the Call of Duty brand, user awareness dropped to 20% of people saying they’d heard of “Modern Warfare 2″.
• Purchase intent remained very high, but still behind Halo 3: ODST, God of War 3, Assassin’s Creed 2 & Final Fantasy XIII.
• Even without the Call of Duty brand, pre-orders are at the highest levels of any game being currently tracked.

Then came a curious Twitpic from Robert Bowling:

Just recieved the first Modern Warfare 2 boxes straight off the press. "Shit just got real." #MW2

Suddenly the Modern Warfare brand was on the cover.  It looks like the core goals of the marketing campaign to maximize brand awareness, brand recognition and retention of loyal users won out over the decision to drop the Call of Duty brand as it began to become evident that the Call of Duty brand was actually helping recognition and solidifying purchase intent.

Edge Online talked to a rep from Infinity Ward and they said:

“Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 is the direct sequel to Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” said a rep. “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.”

That sounds mostly true… but they cannot simply dismiss the fact that the OTX research had to have had some impact in the decision.  I admire Infinity Ward for taking that risk, in dropping the Call of Duty brand, then looking at the data and the research coming back from that decision and making what should be a very smart decision to keep the Call of Duty brand.  While they didn’t directly dismiss the OTX research, they deftly sidestepped it with some plausible marketing-speak.

Another reason I love Infinity Ward, it’s now blatantly obvious that they listen to the community, they look at the research and make sound decisions based on it.

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