MW3 Kotick vs. BF3 Riccitiello at E3

Seconds out, round whatever: EA's John Riccitiello and Activision's Bobby Kotick are at it again.

"I can't objectively tell you what I think of other products until I see them," Kotick told Reuters at E3. "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."

Riccitiello riposted: "It's the beginning of the war and [Kotick] recognises 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. 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."

Riccitiello has spearheaded a war of words on Activision's Call of Duty empire since Battlefield 3 was announced (and even before then with Battlefield: Bad Company 2).

In December, Riccitiello outlined his COD-toppling masterplan and had a pop at the Black Ops team. In March 2011, DICE talked up the tech battle between BF3 and Call of Duty, and called competitors "lazy".

In April, Riccitiello estimated that the marketing battle between Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 will cost $200 million. A month later, Riccitiello said EA's game was "flat out superior" to Call of Duty.

In May, EA outlined exactly how it will knock Call of Duty off its perch.

Activision's response to this bombardment? Thanks. "Thanks for the assistance in building awareness."

Then last week, EA described the COD-focused PR campaign as "a bit of fun". It's good for the industry, said EA Games boss Frank Gibeau - "Everybody loves a heavyweight fight."

But can Battlefield 3 really KO undefeated heavyweight champion of the world Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 this autumn? Regardless of critical opinion, Call of Duty has an army of loyal supporters that have broken sales records every year since Modern Warfare 2.