Modern Warfare 2 Loses Brand Awareness Without 'Call of Duty'

[Spawndemon]

Gamasutra has posted up a new article recently that deals with a survey conducted by tracking firm OTX. They believe that Activision and Infinity Ward are actually hurting themselves by removing the "Call of Duty" name in the upcoming game Modern Warfare 2. Take a look:

Activision and Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 not only dropped the the Call of Duty moniker, but a sizable chunk of brand recognition, tracking firm OTX tells Gamasutra.

Consumer awareness levels for the highly-anticipated military mega-sequel dropped 20 percentage points since Activision revealed the official name of the game would ditch the Call of Duty brand, according to Nick Williams, who runs the GamePlan Insights division for OTX.

"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. 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-->

Following the industry extravaganza E3 in early June, OTX found that consumers' purchase intent for Modern Warfare 2 ranked high on the research firm's top 50 most anticipated games list, but still behind games including Bungie's Halo 3: ODST, Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros., Sony's God of War 3, Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII and Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 2.

But Williams by no means intends to paint a gloomy picture of the commercial prospects for Modern Warfare 2, which Activision plans on backing later this year with massive marketing efforts.

"Despite this dramatic drop in awareness, the purchase intent for Modern Warfare 2 remains very strong," said Williams. Purchase intent still ranks about four times above average. "In our latest charts based on the last four weeks of data, Modern Warfare 2 for the Xbox 360 ranks as the sixth most anticipated title."

He said that even without the "Call of Duty" brand attached to Infinity Ward's upcoming shooter, the Modern Warfare brand has "a passionate following of its own."

Williams added, "The intensity of the purchase intent is particularly impressive, as illustrated by the high levels of Pre-Order Intent, which is the highest of any title currently being tracked. ... Even without the Call of Duty association, it is still perceived as a must have title."

With the results of this survey and the loss of brand awareness, do you think Modern Warfare 2 will be hurt? Would adding the brand name "Call of Duty" really affect the number of sales the game will produce? Let us know what you think.

[Micster]

Re: Modern Warfare 2 Loses Brand Awareness Without 'Call of Duty'

In a world where sequels are pumped out like no tomorrow, it's no wonder that the masses purchase their video games as if it were their favorite brand of powdered soup.

[ExitChicago]

Re: Modern Warfare 2 Loses Brand Awareness Without 'Call of Duty'

They needed to pay for a survey to find that out?

[troybob]

Re: Modern Warfare 2 Loses Brand Awareness Without 'Call of Duty'

elementary statistics says this is a bad survey

the ONLY way to get an accurate percentage of awareness is if you develop the same game under 2 titles and you ask the public which ones they've heard of. Then (and only then) can you validate your statistics as close to perfect.

But that would be ludicrous

Anyways; here's my take on it:

Does that 20 percent sample space include the people that knew the title with the original monicker? I mean this doesn't make much sense here.

Forty percent of a sample space knew of Cod4:MW2. Then they changed the name. Then only 20% of people knew of MW2.

Ok. Correct me if I'm wrong but what if the other 20 percent didn't hear about the monicker being dropped? I mean did you follow that question with "before this interview, were you aware of the upcomming game CoD4:MW2?"

I work with a guy who casually follows the news on gaming stuff. He doesn't know they dropped the monicker and probably won't know until it's released. But he'll see the box art at the store and say "there's that new call of duty game".

So maybe you saw a drop because you didn't ask the gamers if they knew of the next CoD game. I mean - if you ask any gamer "Are you aware of the new CoD game that is in development?" - we would say yes even if we didn't. Because there's always one in development. Micster touched on this point (to very good effect).

I guess I just hate statistics. They made a lot more sense before a took a couple stats classes.

[Dairuka]

Re: Modern Warfare 2 Loses Brand Awareness Without 'Call of Duty'

Another reminder that video game publishers and developers know the majority of their fan-base consists of stupid people.

[vfn4i83]

Re: Modern Warfare 2 Loses Brand Awareness Without 'Call of Duty'

Thats why they release a modern CoD, making it a new brand, and living it to walk its own path.

I going to purchase as soon as possible, anyway. Still playing the CoD2 and praying to a new CoD in WW2 but with a totally new campaign.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Modern Warfare 2 Loses Brand Awareness Without 'Call of Duty'

I agree with Troybob and Dairuka on this.

This article doesnt seem to be taking a lot of different things into account. To shorten CoD4 most people I talk to just say Modern Warfare. They dont even speak the CoD name. These are very casual gamers. We refer to the game as CoD4 here, but we keep tabs on all the news. So that rules all of us out about the name change making us not buy the game.

So going back to those casual gamers; They now talk about Modern Warfare 2. They know what it is and call it by that name. The market itself has dropped Call of Duty and I feel (maybe I am wrong) that Activision/IW is just following that, since it seems to be what the majority has taken to.

Also, as Micster said, people are looking for that next FPS game and will buy different things and try them out. IF people do not relize that this is CoD:MW2 and the box art and images do not give it away, chances are they were still going to buy the game or download the demo to see what its about.

AND FINALLY, CoD4 was not a CoD game. Lets face it guys, it was way different from the normal CoD. Stats, perks, features, game modes, maps, weapons, etc... was not CoD. The game changed on CoD4 dramatically and, in my opinion, is a different game.

I dont see dropping CoD is going to do that much damage. Should the experts say it SHOULD? Yeah. Technically it should. HOWEVER, I dont think it will. Especially since its hitting records on pre-sales MONTHS before the game is released. Its obvious people are figuring out the name.

Crunch

[ExitChicago]

Re: Modern Warfare 2 Loses Brand Awareness Without 'Call of Duty'

elementary statistics says this is a bad survey

the ONLY way to get an accurate percentage of awareness is if you develop the same game under 2 titles and you ask the public which ones they've heard of. Then (and only then) can you validate your statistics as close to perfect.

But that would be ludicrous

Anyways; here's my take on it:

Does that 20 percent sample space include the people that knew the title with the original monicker? I mean this doesn't make much sense here.

Forty percent of a sample space knew of Cod4:MW2. Then they changed the name. Then only 20% of people knew of MW2.

Ok. Correct me if I'm wrong but what if the other 20 percent didn't hear about the monicker being dropped? I mean did you follow that question with "before this interview, were you aware of the upcomming game CoD4:MW2?"

I work with a guy who casually follows the news on gaming stuff. He doesn't know they dropped the monicker and probably won't know until it's released. But he'll see the box art at the store and say "there's that new call of duty game".

So maybe you saw a drop because you didn't ask the gamers if they knew of the next CoD game. I mean - if you ask any gamer "Are you aware of the new CoD game that is in development?" - we would say yes even if we didn't. Because there's always one in development. Micster touched on this point (to very good effect).

I guess I just hate statistics. They made a lot more sense before a took a couple stats classes.

I'm a Six Sigma project manager and yea, surveys are notoriously inaccurate.

[Mavrik347]

Re: Modern Warfare 2 Loses Brand Awareness Without 'Call of Duty'

These 'surveys' they do. You always hear results of them but I have never and don't know anyone who has ever taken part in one. Who are they surveying to get these statistics? Their in-house staff?

[troybob]

Re: Modern Warfare 2 Loses Brand Awareness Without 'Call of Duty'

Mavrik makes a good point. One test of validity is to release how you came about your sample space.

Did you call random people? Did you interview gamers at a conference?

For example, if the first sample is from e3 and the second is from a wii conference - that woulds explain the numbers even without the name change

[ThatEvilGuy]

Re: Modern Warfare 2 Loses Brand Awareness Without 'Call of Duty'

Who cares? the moment that game blows up on everyone in November it will reclaim all the awareness is needs.

Besides, wtf else are trailers and all the commercials for?

The most important thing is that they have a killer product on their hands.

[JoMaMaz]

Re: Modern Warfare 2 Loses Brand Awareness Without 'Call of Duty'

Forty percent of a sample space knew of Cod4:MW2. Then they changed the name. Then only 20% of people knew of MW2.

^ I believe that says it all. :laugh:

I love my CoD games and I agree with Crunch about CoD4 being like no other game in the series, BUT, things adapt and it is still the same gameplay, just reskinned, new features, and a new era imo. I wish for this game, maybe instead of the loooong name on the box, just call it: CoD: Modern Warfare 2. Who doesn't know what CoD stands for by this time? In a few of years this series will practically have been around a decade, who doesn't know this game? And as pointed out, with enough buzz (commercials, news, previews, reviews, etc) and friends going, "OMGzors!!1!, this game is da pwnage" those fans who do not know about this...seriously, if you're a gamer, you will know, but for those 'fair-weather gamers', they will then buy the game also.

But pre-orders that high, all the people who will actually spend the time playing the game, clearly already know about the name change.

[FPS[SONIC]]

Re: Modern Warfare 2 Loses Brand Awareness Without 'Call of Duty'

Well, when they say "brand awareness" they are talking about folk's perceptions. There's a lot of wiggle-room in that area. If you read the article, it obviously is not aimed at the PC enthusiast, but the consumer. Come on, you guys know what's going on with gaming, but most don't know as much. The article leans sharply towards those waiting for a new game for their CONSOLE.

[JoMaMaz]

Re: Modern Warfare 2 Loses Brand Awareness Without 'Call of Duty'

But CoD4 and CoD:WaW sold kajillions on the Xbox 360 and did well on the PS3 also. My guess is, this article was written b/c the guy knows how huge MW2 is going to be, it's already getting some hype, and he's trying to grab attention. This many posts later...he wins. :congrats:

[vfn4i83]

Re: Modern Warfare 2 Loses Brand Awareness Without 'Call of Duty'

different from other titles, hold by a mega distributor, IW try to keep his fanbase hapy (as best as possible)

You can find people not feeling CoD4/5 as a CoD tittle but you dont easily find people displeased with then also.

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