EA’s CEO believes it will benefit from Microsoft’s Activision deal

Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson says he thinks Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is “a great thing”.

In an inverview with CNBC, Wilson was asked where he stood on the deal, and whether EA now considered itself a target for acquisition.

Wilson replied that he approved of the deal, because he felt that it would help to grow an industry that EA stands to “disproportionately” gain from.

“We feel really good about the industry,” Wilson said. “Earlier this week I read an article that projected the industry would get to over $300 billion in revenue by 2030, and nearly 4 billion players.

“So you think about us, the incredible talent that we have, the world-class IP that we have, the technology that we have, and a community of 700 million players – well on its way to 1 billion or more – we think we’re really well positioned and benefit disproportionately from that future.

“I think that Microsoft–Activision is a great thing. It means that one of the world’s largest companies is going to continue to invest in our industry, to help us grow the industry over time.”

While Wilson didn’t address the interviewer’s question as to whether EA was a potential acquistion target, he did instead say that EA wasn’t ruling out acquiring new studios itself.

“As we think about our position, as an independent developer and publisher of the world’s leading interactive entertainment content, we feel really good about our opportunity.

“And to the extent that there are opportunities for us to be inquisitive, we would of course look at those, where it might add new IP or add new teams, or add new technology, or it might add to our ability to grow the amount of people in our network, and grow the engagement that they have in our network.”

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Back in May, before Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision had been completed, Wilson seemed less enthusastic about EA’s potential to benefit from the merger, saying he was “indifferent” as to whether it would be successful.

“We continue to be Microsoft’s biggest partner – I think we’re the number one publisher on their platform – so whether that deal goes through or not is not really material to us broadly,” he said in May.

“We think we have the scale [with] our network, our IP and our talent to continue to navigate the future and lead the future of entertainment, and compete in a marketplace regardless of whether that deal goes through or not.”