Activision should be nervous about Call of Duty - EA

Last week at Gamescom, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg called for a cease-fire in verbal hostilities surrounding Electronic Arts' Battlefield 3 going up against his own company's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, asking the equivalent of "Can't we all just get along?" It turns out the answer to that rhetorical question is "No."

As reported by Kotaku, Electronic Arts spokesman Jeff Brown responded to Hirshberg with a statement of his own. "Welcome to the big leagues, Eric," Brown said. "I know you're new in the job, but someone should have told you this is a competitive industry. You've got every reason to be nervous. Last year Activision had a 90 share in the shooter category. This year, Battlefield 3 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."

The numbers regarding Activision's market share in the first-person shooter category and EA's target with Battlefield 3 line up with those given by EA COO Peter Moore in an interview with GameSpot last week.

As for the reference to Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk, both of those series are on hiatus for 2011, just a few years after being dominant in their respective genres. However, they are unlikely to lie dormant for long, as Activision has indicated new installments of both Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero are in the works.

For more on the feuding FPS titles, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3.