EA held an earnings call for the period ending March 31, 2023 last night, and as part of CEO Andrew Wilson's comments, he talked a little bit about Microsoft's ongoing attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard.
Basically, according to Wilson, the company is "indifferent" about whether Microsoft's takeover goes ahead, mentioning that even if it does get over the line, EA will continue to be the number 1 publisher on the Microsoft platform anyway.
"What I would say is I don't know what's going to happen with Activision and Microsoft. Again, we continue to be Microsoft's biggest partner. I think we're the No. 1 publisher on their platform.
So whether that deal goes through or not is not really material to us broadly. We think we have the scale, again, back to 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.
Longer term, will there be industry consolidation? Will there be broader entertainment consolidation? If I was predicting the future over the long term, I would say that's an almost certainty at some level. I would love for us to have the scale to be a meaningful consolidator in that space.
I think that we have tremendous assets with respect to the future of entertainment. But as it stands today, I think that we're indifferent as to whether that goes through or not. We feel like we have an incredible strategy. We feel like we have an incredible opportunity. And whether it goes through or not, we will continue to be the No. 1 publisher on the Microsoft platform."
Wilson is clearly confident about EA's future on Xbox regardless of what happens with the Activision Blizzard deal, and his comments followed the reveal of some impressive Q4 2023 results which included record net bookings ("up 11 percent year-over-year"), with particular success being attributed to the EA Sports FIFA franchise.
As for the ActiBlizz deal itself, while we're admittedly sick of talking about it by now, there are still going to be plenty of twists and turns to come over the next few months. Microsoft is working on an appeal to the UK CMA, and the company also needs to navigate the European Commission and U.S. FTC in order to get full approval for the takeover.