Activision Blizzard considered merging with EA before Xbox buyout, implies Bobby Kotick

It was hard to miss the news: Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard for close to $70 billion. While there’s still some time to go before the deal is finalized, more and more behind-the-scenes details keep trickling out. Now, we’ve learned that Activision Blizzard could have potentially merged with another major publisher: EA.

The news comes from a GamesBeat interview with Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who will remain in that position despite much controversy. Kotick was asked about the size of the company. “You’d think, oh, we’re this big company and have just these great resources,” he said. “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. 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.” Instead, Kotick said that Activision Blizzard needed an even bigger player to make things work, which they found in Microsoft.

It’s easy to read that quote and infer that Kotick and his company were considering a merger with EA. Such a move would have brought rival franchises like Call of Duty and Battlefield under one roof. Regardless, folding into Microsoft still has big implications for labor and monopolies in the gaming industry. Xbox has scooped up a large number of studies over the past few years, and it shows no signs of stopping.