The Battle Begins! John Riccitiello (EA) Declares War on Call Of Duty!

It was a battle that we have all acknowledged after the announcement that Battlefield 3 will be released around the same time as the annual Call Of Duty. Now it has only just begun....

It all started on September of 2010 with the release of Black Ops on the horizon when Bobby Kotick (CEO of Activision) revealed what he truly thought of EA saying: 

"We have no shortage of opportunity to recruit out of EA - that's their biggest challenge: its stock options have no value. It's lost its way, and until it has success, and hits, and gets that enthusiasm back for the company, it's going to have a struggle getting really talented people, which is going to translate into less-than-great games."

"Lost its way.." has it? Interesting to consider but EA's VP Jeff Brown had some slightly cruel things to say also: 

"His (Bobby) company is based on three game franchises – one is a fantastic persistent world he had nothing to do with; one is in steep decline; and the third is in the process of being destroyed by Kotick's own hubris."  

Things went dead after a while, with the release of Battlefield 3's gameplay footage at GDC. EA must be holding their heads high, considering the amount of positive feedback journalists and gamers alike all love the jaw dropping graphics they showcased.

It got people talking about the road ahead and if Battlefield 3 had the potential to take Call Of Duty off the number one spot.  The general conclusion everyone was getting, was that Battlefield 3 is going to be a far more impressive game than Call Of Duty but Battlefield 3 still wouldn't have the potential to knock out Call Of Duty. Its harsh, but sadly true.

Flash forward to today and oh my! Another statement from EA's CEO John Riccitiello has a few more to say about Call Of Duty:

"This November, we're launching Battlefield 3. It's going up against the next Call of Duty, which is presently the #1 game in the game industry," he said. "A game that last year did $400 million dollars in revenue on day one. [Battlefield 3] is designed to take that game down." 

He is a very confident man, I can give him that. Even though journalists will doubt him to the end, the man refuses to acknowledge that his game was born to be second. But was it really? I mean lets face it I would love nothing more than for Activision and the Call Of Duty franchise to shrink in sales. But it has already established itself to the average gamers or non-hardcore gamers. The guys who will pick up 2 games a year, those guys are still going to buy Call Of Duty and don't give a rats arse whats behind the scenes. Hell I may even pick up this years Call Of Duty instalment if it looks good enough. 

Its nice that EA are trying but it is an inevitable battle. But still....we could dream.

This is only round one folks and more shit is going to go down eventually with the release of whatever the next Call Of Duty is, so stay tuned.