Electonic Arts has announced that Battlefield 3 will be released on PC , PS3 and Xbox 360 on 25 October, 2011. 

The press release specifies a single release date, and there is no clarification of whether this refers to the US or EU release. It may well be the case that EA is planning for a consecutive global release, but given that Europe is usually a few days behind the US, we might only see the game hit shelves a few days later.  

This gives Battlefield 3 a 12 day head start on Call of Duty: Moden Warfare 3, which hits shelves on 8 November.