Call of Duty fans are relieved EA ‘passed’ on owning the series

Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick revealed that EA almost purchased Call of Duty, and fans are grateful the potential deal fell through.

On October 13, Microsoft finally completed the $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The deal paved the way for Microsoft to add Activision Blizzard titles to Xbox Game Pass.

So far, Diablo IV, Crash Bandicoot 4, CoD MW3, and CoD Black Ops 6 have all been added to the service. On top of that, rumors suggest that classic CoD games will also be added.

Some critics blamed CoD for Microsoft raising the price of every Game Pass tier and for Standard tier subscribers no longer having access to first-party Xbox releases on day one. However, much of the reception in the aftermath of the deal has been positive.

In saying that, none of this would have happened if EA had purchased Call of Duty when it had the opportunity.

Call of Duty fans celebrate EA acquisition falling through

Activision

Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick opened up about the company’s relationship with EA on the Grit podcast.

Kotick said that EA wanted to acquire and merge with Activision.

“They tried to buy us a bunch of times. We had merger conversations a bunch of times,” he revealed. Kotick also said EA passed on buying Call of Duty and Guitar Hero before Activision fully owned the IPs.

The former CEO didn’t stop there and had called former EA CEO John Riccitiello, EA’s CEO from 2007 to 2013, the “worst CEO in video games.”

“We would have paid for Riccitiello to stay as [EA] CEO forever. We thought he was the worst CEO in video games.”

CoD players agreed that selling the franchise to EA would have been a mistake.

“Imagine the microtransactions they would’ve thrown down our throats,” one user claimed.

“If EA merged with Activision, the game would have fallen off a cliff unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” a second commenter added.

Even with Black Ops 6 and Warzone‘s declining player counts, some players would rather have the current ownership than what potentially could have been with EA in charge of the brand.