War Between Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Begins at E3

CEOs from both publishers take shots, report claims Kotick denied from playing BF3 at E3.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick and his counterpart at Electronic Arts, John Riccitiello, exchanged verbal barbs over their competing military FPS franchises at E3 2011 last week, with Riccitiello declaring the war between Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has officially begun.

Asked what he thought of Battlefield 3 in an interview with CNBC, Kotick defined the franchise as a PC-oriented game with a "small audience." The comments quickly found their way to Riccitiello, who responded with a statement to Reuters:

"It's the beginning of the war and [Kotick] recognizes they're going to be threatened. We're going to have a clash of the titans this fall. The very fact that he's trying to cast doubt on our game is a perfect example of how we got his goat."

"In terms of where this goes, we think our PS3 game is better than their Xbox game and our PC game is better than their PC game," Riccitiello continued. "If that's all he's got to say, it's obviously going to evaporate as we launch all three. If you went to our press conference, you saw the PS3 footage and the Xbox footage. If Bobby thinks that is PC footage, he's in real trouble."

Kotick backtracked a bit and attempted to clarify his position, responding with this statement to Reuters:

"We just want to stay true to the interest of the Call of Duty fans and we try to not get distracted by what people are doing. I can't objectively tell you what I think of other products until I see them. Battlefield I've only seen on a PC and nobody's seen it on a console yet. Most of our consumers play games on a console. Until I see it on a console, I wouldn't be objective on commenting on it."

Activision and Electronic Arts offered behind-closed-doors hands-on time with their games at E3, and according to CVG, Kotick himself wanted to play DICE's shooter, but was denied.

Citing an unnamed "senior informant," CVG reports that Kotick sent a representative to EA's showroom on Wednesday morning (June 8) in an effort to get into DICE's private BF3 booth. Senior management at EA was consulted, and Kotick's rep was told "it would not be possible."

Activision denies such a request was ever issued.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a multiplatform title set for release on November 8. Battlefield 3, also a multiplatform game, is scheduled to ship on October 25.

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