Electronic Arts has made no secret of its desire to knock Call of Duty from its pedestal. In fact, it's mentioned it so many times it's starting to look like obsession. Activision has noticed the attempts at trash talk, and fired back by claiming such rivalry is harmful to the industry.

"Competition is of course a good thing. It keeps us all on our toes and ultimately makes the games better. It's healthy. But it's one thing to want your game to succeed and another thing to actively, publicly say you want other games to fail," said publishing boss Eric Hirshberg. "Recently a competitor of ours was quoted as saying that he wants to see Call of Duty 'rot from the core'. I've been asked countless times to respond to this comment and I've generally chosen not to.

"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. Can you imagine the head of Dreamworks animation coming out with a new movie and going to the press and saying that he wants Toy Story to 'rot from the core?' It's kind of hard to imagine, right?"

I totally agree with Hirshberg and have called EA out before on its petty antics. Turning Battlefield 3 into a pissing contest only means that people automatically think about the competition when considering DICE's game. It undermines the ability for Battlefield 3 to stand on its own merits and generally makes EA look like a bunch of children. EA's apparent need to throw shit at other people and alienate itself has gotten beyond a joke.

Activision condemns EA "mudslinging" [Eurogamer]