The war of words between and continues and the release dates for 3 and 3 loom ever closer.

This time it was EA's turn to take a pot shot at Activision's behemoth predicting that would share the same fate as the and franchises.

In an out-and-out verbal assault on their rivals EA's Jeff Brown said: "You've got every reason to be nervous. Last year Activision had a 90 share in the category. This year, 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."

Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirschberg recently told the press that EA's negative comments about the Call of Duty series are "bad for the industry". Battlefield 3 is out on October the 25th in the and October the 28th in with following with the usual worldwide launch on November the 8th.

Thanks IndustryGamers.

By Ewan Aiton