EA and Activision Take Their War to Google

The Medal of Honor / Call of Duty showdown has a new battleground: Google ads.

It’s no secret that EA and Activision – two of the largest publishers in the industry – are at each other’s throats, particularly as of late. EA has never tried to hide the idea that it is gunning for the Call of Duty crown with this week’s Medal of Honor, but Activision is eager to defend its title with next month’s Black Ops.

War may have been waged very differently between the Cold War era seen in Black Ops and the dusty Middle East canyons of Medal of Honor, but the war between EA and Activision is set on a third battleground: the internet. Specifically, it’s set on Google.

TechStockJungle caught a rather interesting bit of crossfire marketing while working the ol’ Google. If you search for “Call of Duty” on Google, the first sponsored link on the results page is none other than the official site for EA’s Medal of Honor. Meanwhile, searching for “Medal of Honor” on YouTube (which also uses Google Ads) will return sponsored video links for (dun dun dun!) Call of Duty.

This isn’t anything new, of course. When two titles are competing for the same genre and the same audience, it only makes sound business sense to take as much wind out of your opponent’s sails as you possibly can. “No, don’t play their game,” you say, “Come play our game! It’s way cooler!”

Talk about your actual modern warfare, huh?

(TechStockJungle – thanks, Alai!)