Electronic Arts DICE must be supremely confident in its latest game, Battlefield 3 if it’s considering putting its first person shooter head-to-head against the mighty Modern Warfare 3 later this year.

EA originally said it planned to launch Battlefield 3 this Fall, but at the recent Ad Age Conference keynote presentation, EA CEO John Riccitello has gone on record to say that the first person shooter is “designed to take down that game [Modern Warfare 3],” which is due for release in November.

Though his comment doesn’t necessarily confirm a release date, further evidence from CVG, spotted via EA’s download manager software, reveals that Battlefield 3 is marked down for release on November 2, 2011.Though we can't be certain until EA officially confirms the release date, it's looking more and more likely that the two games will go head-to-head.

That's great news for gamers. Though we do love Activision's yearly dose of warfare, wouldn’t it be nice to see a new challenger for the Christmas number one spot, which has been monopolized by the Call Of Duty and Modern Warfare games for three years running?

Both publishers involved also have astronomical marketing budgets for the two titles, so expect the hype to be extremely intense in the lead up to launch. Both Activision and EA will expect to do commerically very well from these huge titles, but only one game can come out on top. Who’s your money on to win this heavyweight battle?