With Battlefield 3 out this week and Modern Warfare 3 right around the corner, we've finally reached the point where the actual games can start speaking for themselves. Up until this point though, that job was entertainingly handled by two of gaming's biggest publishing titans, Electronic Arts and Activision, who spared no opportunity to publicly puff their collective chests over which title would emerge victorious this fall. 

With all due respect to political candidates and professional athletes, the war of words between EA and Activision was among the most captivating trash-talking match-ups of the year. Whether you want to claim it was all staged for publicity (hey!) or a real rift of emotions (both companies do have a history of trading barbs with each other), there was a certain satisfaction in watching headlines emerge about top-level executives at EA and Activision acting like street-battle MCs spit-swapping beefs over a beat.

Unfortunately, the verbal assaults tapered as the release dates for each game grew closer, giving way to passive-aggressive promotions instead. Still, we can't help but feel some nostalgia for all the mudslinging, so we thought we'd take a look back at some of the year's best quotes from Biggie & Tupac EA and Activision over their hoo-rahing military titles.

In the spirit of competition, we ran each EA and Activision quote through our Burn-O-Meter 5000, which rates disses on a one-through-five scale of perceived burny-ness. Hopefully now, we can finally move on with our lives and just play the games as nature intended.

February: A warning shot 

 
“The intention for us is to have strong FPS entries each year. I don't want to give away the thunder from our call but for quite a long time now I've been saying it's our long term goal to take back the first-person shooter category leadership. - EA CEO John Riccitiello [IndustryGamers.com]

Analysis: It's a slight dig intended for the obvious FPS leader, Activision, but what publisher doesn't want to own the FPS category right now?

Burn Score:

June: The hottest month on record

"We just want to stay true to the interest of the Call of Duty fans and we try to not get distracted by what people are doing. I can’t objectively tell you what I think of other products until I see them. 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.” - Activision CEO Bobby Kotick [Reuters]

Analysis: Well, he's not really wrong here. The guy hadn't seen Battlefield 3 on console yet. What should he do, lie? On the other hand, stating that "nobody" has seen it on console yet could be construed as a little inflammatory.

Burn Score:  

"It’s the beginning of the war and (Kotick) recognizes 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 [Reuters]

Analysis: Here's where things start to get good. Kotick's quote was a tad jabby, but Riccitiello goes for the jugular (or goat, if you will). Stating that Kotick's in "real trouble" is a little over the top, given the success of the COD series, but hey, what's a little hyperbole between enemies?  

Burn Score:

“I think EA might talk about our games in the press more than we do.”  - Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg [MCVUK.com]

Analysis: Classic diversionary PR tactics — like when Eazy-E claimed he was making money off of Dr. Dre's diss records — but a little weak under the circumstances. 

Burn Score:

 
"A lot of people bought Modern Warfare more for the coffee table and didn't play it for two months. There's sort of that mass audience... they're going to win there. The question is, 'So, if the gamer buys our game and the mass audience buys their game, where do the two meet?' And all I want to do, if you will, is to have them rot from the core."- Riccitiello [IndustryGamers]

Analysis: Boom. Kill shot. You even get a quick catch phrase in "rot from the core." Bravo, Riccitiello.  

Burn Score:

August: Taking the high ground...but not so fast. 

“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'?" -Hirshberg [Eurogamer]

Analysis: So many possibilities to come back with here. Hirshberg could have just held a press conference, walked on stage, picked up a microphone, read the sales numbers for MW2 and Black Ops, dropped the mic, and walked off stage. Instead, he takes the high ground by comparing the Call of Duty series to Toy Story. Why didn't someone think of that sooner?!

Burn Score:

"Welcome to the big leagues Eric — I know you're new in the job but someone should have told you this is an 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." - Jeff Brown, corporate communications at EA. [IndustryGamers]

Analysis: This, my friends, is how you talk some smack. You capitailze on your opponent's failures, while stressing the haunts of Father Time are on your side. Brilliant.   

Burn Score:

Overall Winner/Loser: EA 

It's a matter of perspective who emerged victorious in this year's videogame smack-talk-Olympics. You could argue Activision was the winner by choosing a less vicious verbal path, and that EA sunk too low for such a successful company. On the other hand, EA displayed hunger and clearly had the best assaults and comebacks, whereas Activision kind of fell flat in that department. (They'll surely sell a bazillion copies of MW3, though, so you can't really feel too bad for them.) Either way, EA definitely won/lost the most here.