EA set a date for their downloadable World War II shooter Battlefield 1943 this morning, and it"s coming a lot sooner than you may have predicted. The Battlefield 1942 followup should be arriving on the Xbox Live Marketplace next Wednesday, July 8 and the PlayStation Store that Thursday, July 9. It"ll set you back a cool $14.99, or 1200 Microsoft points.

It ought to be interesting to see what happens to the number of multiplayer users in Halo 3 and the Call of Duty games over the next couple of weeks. Will DICE"s budget-priced, multiplayer FPS be able to make a dent in the following of the established kings of the genre, or will it simply go under the radar of most mainstream players?