EA Wants To Steal Away A Chunk Of Call Of Duty's Market-share With Battlefield 3.

Speaking at an investors conference overnight, EA gaffer John Riccitiello said DICE's Battlefield 3 is "superior" to Call Of Duty in every way. Riccitiello added that the publisher aims to take a big chunk of Activision's Call Of Duty market with the modern military shooter.

"We know we have a big competitor," he stated. "But head-to-head with Call of Duty in Q3, we have the superior game engine, a superior development studio, and a flat out superior game. Our goal is to significantly gain share in the huge FPS category and to put the other team on defense."

Big words from Riccitiello, but they are ultimately backed up by everything we've seen of Battlefield 3 thus far.

It sounds like EA are on the right track too, according to Riccitiello Battlefield 3 pre-orders are up 700 percent "versus the same period before the launch of Battlefield: Bad Company 2".

"A lot of people are telling us they want to play this game on day one," he added.

Activision has yet to announce the next installment in the Call Of Duty franchise. Whatever the publisher manages to do with the series, it's undoubtedly going to have big competition from EA this year. The war between modern military shooters is going to be an interesting watch this year.