Activision: Modern Warfare has taken on a 'life of its own'

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Mar 26th 2009 3:10PM

Aside from, uh, gameplay footage, the one thing that was deemed conspicuously absent from Modern Warfare 2's explosive teaser trailer was the Call of Duty branding. Whether developer Infinity Ward is still debating the nested sequel's final title or simply hopes to distinguish its next FPS from the other 37 Call of Duty games on shelves is up for speculation, but it's hard to argue the independent prestige that lies behind Call of Duty 4's "Modern Warfare."

An Activision spokesperson seems to agree, telling Joystiq, "At this time, all we are free to say is that Modern Warfare has taken on such a life of its own, it has become our focus now." Since Modern Warfare 2 is almost certain to spawn another iteration after it releases this November, it may be best to ditch the Call of Duty brand before we end up with something like Call of Duty 17: Modern Warfare 6: Moderner Warfare 3: Lasers are Bad News: Aerosmith.

Update: Activision has just officially announced the November 10th arrival of "Modern Warfare 2" -- sans "Call of Duty."

Tags: Activision, Activision-Blizzard, Call-of-Duty, FPS, Infinity-Ward, Microsoft, Modern-Warfare, Modern-Warfare-2, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (84)

"Call of Duty 17: Modern Warfare 6: Moderner Warfare 3: Lasers are Bad News: Aerosmith." i love that name
someone make a petition to get that name on a game

I would buy that game.

Who cares what they call it anyway??

Might as well call it "(Fill in the blank) Dual Analog FPS" Part 8" for all we care.

C'mon Conduit. Bring me some refreshing controls!

Is it bad I still go back to Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 and it's god awful graphics even while Killzone 2 sits in my PS3?

Helghast Scum

hahaha. Pricelss. :)

FOR HELGHAN!

"Call of Duty 17: Modern Warfare 6: Moderner Warfare 3: Lasers are Bad News: Aerosmith."

Pfft. I'm waiting for the Metallica version.

Seriously. Aerosmith and guns? No. Now, Metallica and guns? Fuck yea.

Yeeaaahhh!! Oooooooh.

the guy is absolutely right, you don't see apple renaming the ipod after a new iteration, you don't see Honda dropping the word Civic after a new model...Brand names sell, its that simple. Why do you think Monolith worked so hard to get the F.E.A.R name back from WB for Project Origin?

Dropping the COD name is a risky move. They will have to advertise the hell out of this one. (no doubt they won't succeed though)

Crap, wrong thread, this was for ps360owner

Didn't you ever play the Aerosmith arcade game? Of course they go with guns!

I played the Aerosmith arcade shooter. I have good memories of it; That CD thrower was wicked. The premise is really weird, but the gameplay and design were great

Come on Ludwig, i expected more from you. you should have used:
"Call of Duty 17: Modern Warfare 6: Moderner Warfare 3: Lasers are Bad News: Guns N Roses."

i love call of duty but ditching the call of duty name is one of the stupidest ideas i ever heard.

the reason call of duty games sell so well is because its got call of duty in the name.

if some one walks in to a shop say this november to buy a game.

they look and they see modernwarfare 2 there going to think it has nothing to do with call of duty so they wont buy it.

you act like people are so stupid as to not do any research before purcha.....oh well played sir, well played.

im not talking about the hardcore gamer im talking about the normal gamer just walks into a shop and see's modernwarfare 2.with no call of duty in the name it will make that person think it has nothing to do with call of duty.

I have a friend who works at gamestop who says people tried to return Halo Wars because it wasn't a shooter.
And I hear people talk about CoD4 like it was the first Call of Duty. I agree, it would be a mistake to drop the title.
But Jedi Knight got away with it back in the day... So who knows.

I disagree. I think "Modern Warfare" has completely overshadowed "Call of Duty." I think that by dropping CoD, they're further setting themselves apart from the (yawn) WW2 shooter genre.

Yeah, people at my college talk about "playing some call of duty" all the time.

Word of mouth will probably let them get away with this one (because everyone will tell each other it's a sequel to CoD4), but isn't the point of sequels to cash in on the franchise as much as is humanly possible?

I could be wrong, but I suspect there may be the small possibility that Activision will advertise the crap out of this game in the months building up to its release. I'm sure it will do just fine whether or not it has the CoD prefix. Anyone already so sold on the CoD franchise is already gonna know that this is a sequel to that anyway.

Call of Duty 6: moderner warfare: green hue edition

It sounds like Infinity Ward is still (rightfully pissed) that their brand keeps getting diluted by Treyarch in off years. Perhaps they are attempting to claim the Modern Warfare brand for themselves.

I can't wait to see their reaction when Activision announces Modern Warfare 3, developed by Treyarch, coming to all consoles in Holiday 2010.

Sadly, it's so true.

I really don't think that's the case. Infinity Ward is slave to Activision, especially in regards to IP's Activision owns. This is an action of Activision, trying to build a new franchise that they can construct parallel to Call of Duty.

Introducing a knockoff and incremental improvement by someone other than Infinity Ward (like a Modern Warfare 3) is not the way to go, I'd love to know what Activision is thinking going forward.

It's trendy to hate on Treyarch, but despite myself I'm actually enjoying the hell out of World at War. If they get to use what I'm sure will be a phenomenal MW2 engine for a Call of Duty: Vietnam or something in 2010, I'm on board.

"Call of Duty 17: Modern Warfare 6: Moderner Warfare 3: Lasers are Bad News: Aerosmith."

Today's "Oops, I crapped myself from laughing too hard" moment is brought to you by Ludwig Kietzmann.

Modern WarFare is back i liked CoD4 Modern WarFare

Call of Duty 17: Modern Warfare 6: Moderner Warfare 3: Lasers are Bad News: Aerosmith.

ROFLMAO!!!!!

Ludwig FTW! i always enjoy your posts. halarious.

so since there was a rumor awhile back that the next CoD would be in the future, and this isn't the next CoD, is there still hope for that?

Man, I hope not.

Lol wut?

i wasnt thinking space marines and aliens, more like GRAW level tech, just to keep things fresh. You can only use an AK-47 or an M16 so many times before it gets boring

I remember hearing this rumor about the Battlefield series that turned into Battlefield 2142, but not for Call of Duty.

There was a rumour that Infinity Ward were looking into making a sci-fi shooter. Since this game isn't technically a Call of Duty, it's even more unlikely that the proposed sci-fi game would be.

taken "a life on its own", eh? ...what a complicated way of saying spin-off.

"Call of Duty 17: Modern Warfare 6: Moderner Warfare 3: Lasers are Bad News: Aerosmith."
That is the funniest thing I have read in a long time.

"Call of Duty 17: Modern Warfare 6: Moderner Warfare 3: Lasers are Bad News: Aerosmith."

Haha!! Quality

Oh God...its Jedi Knight all over again.

Am I the only one who would like them to keep the Call of Duty branding, but separate the two brands?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in Nov '10
Call of Duty: World at War 2 in Nov '10

and on and on...

I'm all for them losing the Call of Duty Branding (although i think they will sell far less without it), I'm just not too keen on the name of the game being "Modern Warfare 2". Descriptor subtitles just dont work as the primary title.

Ex: MGS3: Snake Eater 2 = Snake Eater 2. Nevermind, that's awesome.

Funny, your avatar. This is just like when they went from Rambo: First Blood Part 2, to Rambo 3

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in Nov '10
Call of Duty: World at Warfare 2 in Nov '10

FIXED.

Good,

Now they'll find a developer to make "Modern Warfare" every other year...

Names not a big deal. They can call it, "Fat Chicken Poopy Time" all i care as long as the game is good. :)

No, it has NOT.

I'm all for Infinity Ward separating themselves from Treyarch, but it would suck if it didn't sell well because of "Call of Duty" being absent.

Call of Duty 17: Modern Warfare 6: Moderner Warfare 3: Lasers are Bad News: Aerosmith.

make it happen.

Ludwig - Check your spelling on 'indepedent'.

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Activision: Modern Warfare has taken on a 'life of its own'

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