It seemed strange when we first got shown the Modern Warfare 2 teaser trailer, no ‘Call of Duty’ tag was to be seen.

This posed a few questions, including whether or not dropping the Call of Duty name would negatively impact the game’s sales.

Turns out, it just might. According to a survey done by tracking firm OTX, dropping the Call of Duty name has cut consumer product awareness in half.

“Up until the beginning of May, OTX had been tracking the title asCall 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.”

But even with these numbers, William doesn’t seem to think it’s that big of a problem.

“Despite this dramatic drop in awareness, the purchase intent for Modern Warfare 2 remains very strong,” said Williams. “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.”

“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” added Williams.

It’s pretty crazy to think something like this game missing the Call of Duty name could impact it in such a big way. But I think it’s safe to say this game is going to sell like hotcakes regardless.

[Via: Gamasutra]