After numerous will-it-won’t-it moments, it now appears Infinity Ward’s blockbuster follow-up to what we still like to simply call COD4, will now be adorned with the Call of Duty branding.

The final confirmation comes in the form of a recent unveiling of the packshot where, proud as punch, Call of Duty sits happily above what we believed was the only title of the game: the succinct – and accurate – “Modern Warfare 2”.

Contacting Activision about the name change, Joystiq received the following response:

“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.”

Though a complete about-face from the publisher’s earlier communication where they expressed their desire to birth a new franchise from an existing successful one, we’re assuming this reversal has a lot to do with a recent survey that showed Joe Public on the street simply does not relate Modern Warfare 2 with the quality associated with the Call of Duty franchise.

It makes little difference to us gamers of course. Though we here will now have to remember to type the renown marque before discussing Modern Warfare 2 in future. Damn, and we had just got the hang of leaving it out.