Activision Blizzard Could Have Joined Forces With EA
It seems that Microsoft was not the only company in the running to acquire Activision. They were just the biggest with the most money. A merger with EA certainly wouldn’t have made quite the splash and almost certainly wouldn’t have been quite as much money being thrown around.
In an interview, Bobby Kotic said this:
“You’d think, oh, we’re this big company and have just these great resources. But when you’re comparing us to, you know, $2 trillion companies and $3 trillion companies and trillion-dollar companies and $500 billion companies, you realize, we may have been a big company in video gaming, but now, when you look at the landscape of who the competitors are, it’s a different world today than ever before. But I think that even if we were to have consolidated within EA, that wouldn’t have given us what we’re going to need going forward. And so you needed to have a big partner in order to be able to make it work.”
EA just isn’t a big enough partner to really be considered. EA is a massive company, but they pale in comparison to that of Microsoft. It’s hard to blame Activision Blizzard for clearly taking the best offer on the table. Just the thought of EA and Activision Blizzard teaming up is an odd one.
It’s also probably for the best. EA has had many of its own issues, and I trust Microsoft to improve the culture while still creating some excellent games. Time will tell exactly how well this massive $70 billion deal will turn out. I hope the culture improves, and I hope the games remain excellent. However, there is a lot of work to be done, and it will be interesting to see what Microsoft makes exclusive to Xbox and PC.