Senior executives at two of the biggest games development companies have been trash talking ahead of the release of two competing games.
EA's Battlefield 3 is due out on October 28 while Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is due out on November 8 (US Dates).
EA CEO John Riccitiello got the ball rolling back in June by saying he wanted rival Activision's Call of Duty series to "rot from the core."
In response Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg simply said that he believes that there is no place for such mudslinging: "My job is to help our incredibly talented, passionate teams to make the best games they can, not to throw insults around at others. But I actually feel this kind of rhetoric is bad for our industry."
Hirshberg went on to explain: "As someone who runs one of the biggest publishers in this business I can tell you that I want as many games as possible to succeed, whether we created them or not, because I want this industry to keep growing and bringing in new people."
He also said: "The only way to do that is to continue to make great games. We shouldn't be tearing each other apart fighting for a bigger piece of the pie – we should all be focused on trying to grow a bigger pie. If we as an industry act like there's a finite number of games in the world, then there will be."
Jeff Brown, a spokesman for EA, responded to Hirshberg's comments on Friday by saying, "Welcome to the big leagues Eric - I know you're new in the job but someone should have told you this is a competitive industry.
"You've got every reason to be nervous. Last year Activision had a 90 share in the shooter category. This year, Battlefield 3 is going to take you down to 60 or 70. At that rate, you’ll be out of the category in 2-3 years. If you don't believe me, go to the store and try to buy a copy of Guitar Hero or Tony Hawk."
A screenshot from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Modern Warfare 3 will be the eighth game in the highly popular Call of Duty series. Modern Warfare 2 was phenomenally succesful and saw fans of the series camping out overnight in front of video game stores hoping to secure copies at the midnight launch. The game went on to become the second bestselling game of all time in both the US and the UK.
A screenshot from Battlefield 3.
Battlefield 3 will be the eleventh game in the Battlefield series and the fifth game given a modern setting. The modern Battlefield games have never been as commercially succesful as the modern Call of Duty games but are frequently highly praised by critics. Publicity surrounding the Battlefield series has caused the most recent full game in the series, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, to leap back up to the Number 1 slot in this week's UK xBox charts
