Former EA CEO Had the Chance to Buy Call of Duty and Blizzard, But Decided Against It

Bing Gordon, former Chief Creative Officer of EA, said in an interview that EA first saw the offers to buy Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and Blizzard. However, EA ultimately passed on all of them.

Gordon appeared in an interview in the Grit podcast alongside Bobby Kotick where they talked all about the business side of being a higher-up in a video game studio. One topic they touched on was EA having the chance to buy Blizzard and games under the Activision banner.

“Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and Blizzard. EA saw those first and passed on all of them,” Gordon said before praising Kotick for his prowess in acquiring Activision and realizing that the IPs are great to own. On top of that, he also praised Kotick for retaining everyone after the acquisition.

Earlier in the same podcast, Kotick mentioned that he believes EA had the worst CEO in all of gaming. He said that he was willing to pay just for John Riccitiello, former CEO of EA, to stay as the CEO forever. He added that his biggest fear was Gordon taking over as the CEO of EA. Gordon agreed on this saying that it hastened his departure from EA.

Activision Blizzard was the product of a merger between Activision and Vivendi Games in 2008. During this time, Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) games were in full swing and Kotick wanted a piece of that pie. He reached out to Vivendi Games which had Blizzard Entertainment under its portfolio, which has World of Warcraft. The deal was sealed in April 2008.

In January 2022, Microsoft announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard. The acquisition went through rough patches with the Federal Trade Commission and United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority challenging the acquisition. The acquisition finally closed in October 2023 and Microsoft was able to buy Activision Blizzard for $75.4 billion, the largest video game acquisition by value to date.