EA welcomes ActiBlizz

By Robert Purchese Published 4 December, 2007

Relishes the competition.

EA has told Eurogamer it is looking forward to competing with mega-publisher Activision Blizzard when it is formed next year.

The fighting talk was issued by UK boss Keith Ramsdale, who told us he still believes EA has the best catalogue of games around.

"We wish them good luck and look forward to the competition," Ramsdale told Eurogamer. "We believe that EA still has the industry's strongest portfolio of game franchises and we're always at our best when we have a clearly defined competitor."

Vivendi announced it had bought 52 per cent of shares in Activision on Sunday, revealing that the two were to merge under new name Activision Blizzard when handshakes are completed in mid 2008.

The deal is said to be worth a whopping USD 18.9 billion, and will see the emerging publisher become the most powerful in the world - knocking EA off its previously familiar throne.

So far little seems to have changed in the day to day running of associated development studios, although we expect some crossovers and streamlining to be done in the coming months.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (27) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • dsmx #1 4 years ago

    Load of crap EA hates competition why else do they go after exclusive licenses?

  • ElasticTangent #2 4 years ago

    EA are really looking forward to the copetition in the same way that I look forward to having a small hole bored in my head and having my brain sucked out through a straw.

  • seasidebaz #3 4 years ago

    great news, im looking forward to buying my PlayBoxDS games from BlizzEAVision

    at least thats if we really do end up with a unified games console... and publisher... and codehouse... and in fact real house... money... in fact, lets just make everything into one giant katamari!!

  • Waffleaber #4 4 years ago

    Competition has improved FIFA. During the 16bit and Playstation era's it was pretty much unchallenged in the mainstream and an updated player roster was all that was needed each year.

    Then Pro Evo became the game of choice and EA had to change to keep up. Now the 360 version of FIFA is arguably better than Pro Evo 08.

    I doubt EA are looking forward to a larger competitor threatening sales as much as they claim but it's not that bad for the rest of us.

  • urban #5 4 years ago

    best catalogue of games? thats funny. most money thrown at them maybe, but they definitely got no aces up their sleeves

  • homerramone #6 4 years ago

    he still believes EA has the best catalogue of games around.
    What catalogue is he looking at then !? Or has 'best catalogue of games' come to mean 'biggest list of remade versions of the same games we produced last year'

  • Emth #7 4 years ago

    EA games are definitely more original, better made and better supported than Blizzard games, so therefore I guess he's right.

    /sarcasm off

  • hulahoops #8 4 years ago

    Well he was hardly going to finger his shirt collar nervously, clear his throat and announce:

    "Activision Blizzard have a far more diverse and respected catalog than we do, and not only that but we're now second place in terms of size and profit. Frankly we're really cacking ourselves."

    Was he now?

    Edited by 1 at 04/12/07 @ 14:14

  • Wobbler #9 4 years ago

    "EA become plucky underdog" shocker! :)

  • Triggerhappytel #10 4 years ago

    Despite reading the news piece the other day, I was not aware Vivendi bought Activision out!! Not a bad turnaround for a company who was up for sale themselves about four years ago.

    Anyway, yes this is bullshit - EA normally just buy out anyone/anything when there is a threat of decent competition.

  • rhinoxious #11 4 years ago

    I can't see ActiBlizz having the same level of branding and corporate presence as EA present themsleves with.

  • the_sas_man #12 4 years ago

    EA enjoys the competition just like Sudan enjoys teddy bears named Mohammed

  • alimokrane #13 4 years ago

    Looking forward or May be Scared now ?

    When it comes to my opinion, Screw both of them1

  • oreillymj #14 4 years ago

    How long before one of these guys buys up one of the few remaining movie studio's and just hoovers up the film tie-in market?

    Gaming will have really "made it" when these guys become more powerful then the movie studios.

    Whoops - forgot that Vivendi do own Universal, I think.

    Edited by 1 at 04/12/07 @ 14:34

  • bdc #15 4 years ago

    Erm EA, you don't have SHIT on Blizzard and Activision's games. Seriously.

  • BillyBrush #16 4 years ago

    But why will ActiBlizzard be the biggest?

    because they cream £8.99 per month out of people for sweet FA...and that's a great business model, there are a whole lotta people who have now paid about £260 to play WOW - it's pricier than upgrading for Crysis..


  • BillyBrush #17 4 years ago

    bdc
    04-Dec-07 14:39:33 Erm EA, you don't have SHIT on Blizzard and Activision's games. Seriously.

    Generally no, but i think if you popped Tony Hawks Proving Ground next to err Skate or the EA published Orange box, the shit would be flying the opposite direction to what you think, you doth assume too much

    Criterion, DICE, Bioware, Pandemic, Publishing for Valve...that's a decent roster even if their internal studios are a bit guff. Big publisher = same old, they have some good, they have some moneyspinning crap, it's not like Activision are some kinda Capcom/Nintendo that we should all rejoice, they're just 8 steps up the ladder from Midway. And Blizzard, Whilst they make great games, they milk their fans for all their spare change, which is nice

    Add them to the big moneyspinners list comprising EA and Ubi i say, nowt that special bowd em
    Edited by 1 at 04/12/07 @ 14:53

  • drunkymonkey #18 4 years ago

    Yeah, let's not forget that EA publish acclaimed retail games such as Half Life 2, Crysis, and Battlefield.

  • Dafridge #19 4 years ago

    "worth a whopping USD 18.9 billion, and will see the emerging publisher become the most powerful in the world "

    - How does that make them the most pwerful in the world?

    Will we now see console verions of WOW?

  • Danj #20 4 years ago

    ActiBlizz is a much cooler name than the utterly dull, boring and long winded "Activision Blizzard".

  • kangarootoo #21 4 years ago

    Ahahahaha... ooo, let me wipe my eyes.

    Any board member who tells you he likes competition in business is lying through his teeth. The core purpose of a business to get and keep customers, and one of the challenges of that (if the not the main one) is competition.

    If any business could press a magic button to eliminate all competition in their market sector, they would press it. A company like EA would press it five times and then stack heavy books on it.

    Keith Ramsdale's pants are fully ablaze.

  • Ginger #22 4 years ago

    Not calling it BlActivision then?
    Edited by 1 at 04/12/07 @ 16:46

  • loopy #23 4 years ago

    "Ahahahaha... ooo, let me wipe my eyes.

    Any board member who tells you he likes competition in business is lying through his teeth. The core purpose of a business to get and keep customers, and one of the challenges of that (if the not the main one) is competition.

    If any business could press a magic button to eliminate all competition in their market sector, they would press it. A company like EA would press it five times and then stack heavy books on it.

    Keith Ramsdale's pants are fully ablaze."

    That made me laugh so hard, cheers! :D

  • Emth #24 4 years ago

    "But why will ActiBlizzard be the biggest?

    because they cream £8.99 per month out of people for sweet FA...and that's a great business model, there are a whole lotta people who have now paid about £260 to play WOW - it's pricier than upgrading for Crysis.. "

    WoW is hardly bad value for money. Anyone thats been playing since release and has paid around the full £260 you mention has almost certainly played enough hours on WoW to complete 10 £40 games, and that's being conservative.

  • Orange #25 4 years ago

    Playing an mmo like WoW is the best value for money you can spend on gaming. You end up buying hardly any other games, if at all, as all your gaming time gets invested into WoW.

    So it's not right to compare the total subs over 2 years for WoW to the cost of Crysis, as Crysis is a game you'll play for a couple of weeks at most and then you'll be buying yet another fullprice game.

  • Crovax20 #26 4 years ago

    Suppose EA will buy Ubisoft, to become the biggest again

  • kangarootoo #27 4 years ago

    @loopy

    Welcome. Compliment accepted :)