Battlefield 3 Will Be Big, But Call of Duty Will Still Win 4Q, Says MKM Partners' Eric Handler

Next year could also bring significant EPS growth to Activision

.

That's according to Eric Handler, a Managing Director-Sector Head/Senior Analyst at MKM Partners, who spoke to CNBC this afternoon. But while Call of Duty is the company's bread-and-butter, the game that's expected to boost Activision is none other than Diablo 3, the role-playing game that joined the Activision brand after the company merged with Blizzard. Handler also expects Activision's big competitor in the first-person shooter market, Electronic Arts'

Battlefield 3, to ship 8.5 million copies in the fourth quarter. By comparison, Sterne Agee's Arvind Bhatia expects the Electronic Arts to ship 10 million copies. Handler pointed out that Battlefield 3 has had “very good PC scores,” as evidenced by the

*. The Xbox 360 version is a

at 85.75%, while the

is at 87.50%.

Regardless of the scores, Handler still expects Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 to come out on top, selling as many as three times as many copies as Battlefield 3.

Traders who believe that both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 will do well in the fourth quarter may want to consider the following trades:

While it's important to note that there are and always will be fluctuations in the video game industry (as there are in all entertainment industries), those who believe that both games will cannibalize each other may want to consider this alternate position: