OTX reveals that Modern Warfare 2 without the tag of Call of Duty is less popular in the US market. OTX says this from its survey.

It said that the awareness of MW2 there has dropped from 40 percent points to 20 percent points without the name of Call of Duty in it.

Nick Williams of the GamePlan Insights division for OTX said, “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 also further said, “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.”

Earlier this month the OTX had found through their survey that consumers’ purchase intent for MW2 ranked high. It further reveals that it was 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.

It is an open fact that the biggest title in 2007 as well as in 2008 were Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World at War respectively. This is also evident because till today both the games are played too much, especially the 2007 hit CoD4: Modern Warfare.

It is also expected same or even more from the Modern Warfare 2 that is going to be unveiled on November 10 this year. The CEO of Activision Publishing earlier said to the media that they are expecting this much awaited series of the Call of Duty to be a big hit and in fact the biggest title in the videogame industry.

He also said that when the original MW was launched in the year 2007 then it had a substantial jump in consumers engaged in the CoD franchise. He explains further that Modern Warfare 2 will be having a ready purchasers.

He adds, “We also look at Modern Warfare 2 and where it’s strongest on the next-gen platforms of PS3 and Xbox 360. The installed base from the first Modern Warfare to the second one will be nearly double.”

Call of Duty has always been known for its slight tweak’s to realism. We all know this. At least it for those gamers who have played the previous games. It says about a heroic journey of a soldier. Modern Warfare was a bit different than the other Call of Duty games. It took this slight tweak and developed it in a huge way by creating one of the best games that any console has ever seen in past few years in the gaming industry on the global platform.

The Modern Warfare is back now with the recent hits such as Killzone 2. Vince Zampella from Infinity Wart lately told to the media, the official magazine of PlayStation that they are going for authenticity and not realism. He said that they are not making a sim, but they are making entertainment. According to him, they want it to look real like that of an action movie.

Zampella also mentioned that they are well aware of the fact that that action movies look good, but they are many times way off from the true thing.

He said that Modern Warefare 2 will be looking to do the same thing. He also said that there is not any mandate that every level has to be a wide open sandbox.

Always there were questions raised for keeping the name of Call of Duty in Modern Warfare 2. The question is rational too because Modern Warfare 2 is the sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Recently the concept of dropping the Call of Duty name was explained by Robert Bowling, the community manager. He speaks to MTV as to why Infinity Ward has taken this decision.

He said that the game is called only Modern Warfare 2 because Infinity Ward wanted to emphasize on the fact that Modern Warfare is a direct sequel to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. A quote from what he said to MTV: “This has never happened in Call of Duty before. They’re typically their own campaigns and totally unrelated to the previous one. This one, is indeed a direct sequel and we just want to make that clear.”

Here is a video of the demo of Modern Warfare 2 from the E3 conference in Los Angeles.

Modern Warfare 2 may not hit retail counters for another 6 months, but Activision is kick-starting the UK hype for the game today. There will be a premiere of the game during tonight’s Champions League final match going to be played between Manchester United and Barcelona.

The developer Infinity Ward and Activision has finely guarded many of the secrets about the release of MW2. They are only drip feeding trailers to all the fans of the game and also to the gaming industry.

The very first hints of the title of the game were given in March this year at GDC with a recent follow-up trailer debuting earlier in May.
Today’s promotion at the Champions League final is the single most prominent single ad spot that has been ever dedicated to a video game debut in the United Kingdom.

David Tyler, the UK marketing director for Activision said, “Premiering the new Modern Warfare 2 trailer during such a high profile event presents a great opportunity to reach Infinity Ward’s fans and gamers throughout the UK.”

Recent news of MW2 comes that it will be featuring wide open gameplay having lots of variety. Jason West, President of Infinity Ward, says this. The news was published in an extensive ten-page feature in the Game Informer, a US magazine. The article reveals more key details about the hotly-anticipated Modern Warfare 2.

It reveals that the plot of the game is set to a backdrop of a continued Russian Federation instability. It also reveals that the game will take gamers flung from Siberia to Afghanistan and even through the slums of Rio De Janeiro.

These are the expectations of CoD6: chases on snowmobiles, a single-player experience and yes, it takes longer to complete than the original one. Now the developer is also actively trying to eliminate the endless respawning enemies that caused problems for sneakier players in the original MW. There are also movable turrets, riot shields, customisable weapons, and yes, more acrobatic player movements (one can swim and climb ice ledges), and also a fully separate co-op mode that features its own levels.

After the video teaser of MW2 now there is some more information in the latest issue of Game Informer, one of the top gaming magazines. It offers some new details in its June issue.

For Modern Warfare Fans there is a good news. At least all the fans will be happy to know that its major character, Sergeant John “Soap” MacTavish, returns as the captain of an international group that is addressed as Task Force 141. But yes, this time he will be an NPC.

The gaming magazine Game Informer also mentions in the latest edition that the sequel continues the narrative that was begun in Modern Warfare, with the world facing dangerous political instability in Russia. In MW2, a terrorist group aims of using political turmoil of Russia to their advantage in order to secure the troubled empire’s weapon stockpiles.

Makarov, another character who is the leader of the terrorist group even happens to be an associate of Zakhaev. Zakhaev is the man who is responsible for the first games’ nuclear attack.

Today a regular member at our site CriousGamer mailed me this news which seems to be the latest rumored leaks, I think these details might be right because everything listed below can easily be expected from the ‘Infinity Wards’ upcoming ‘Modern Warfare 2′ sequel to the smash hit 2007 title ‘Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’.

1. All the weapons from the original are coming again.
2. 3 maps from the original are coming back with a few noticeable tweaks here & there.
3. There is a total of 16 maps including 3 from the original.
4. 20 new weapons will be added to the inventory & the most noticeable are the FAMAS assault rifle, HK PSG-1 sniper rifle, MP7 sub machine gun, AA12 fully automatic shotgun, MG4 LMG and the .44 magnum revolver.
5. Multiple attachment perk has been added which allows 2 attachments to be added to a weapon.
6. The Single Player Campaign is predicted to last 7+ hours.
7. Co-op Mode has been added.
8. A new Alien Terrorist co-op mode is also added with details still unknown.
9. The multiplayer is set to have 4 new modes above the original modes.
10. A new CLAN system & TOURNAMENT system will be added.
11. The PS version of the game is set to have Dedicated severs provided from SONY [Xbox Servers status still unknown].

Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is scheduled to be released on ‘November 10/2009′.

SOURCE

I was reading the comments on this post and saw one of the guys made some pretty decent observations about the new perks that were seen in the first trailer for Modern Warfare 2. So, here’s what the guy posted:

What you see above is a still shot at 1:12 from the trailer released last night. It appears to be a few perk icons, what do you think? I haven’t really had a chance to comb through the entire trailer and look at it frame by frame, unfortunately I have a job and bills to pay :[

>> discuss it more in the forum <<