EA welcomes ActiBlizz
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.