Vivendi said Sunday that it plans to acquire a controlling stake in Activision in a deal that creates a rival to Electronic Arts as the world's largest independent video game publisher, reports the New York Times.

The deal would combine Activision's expertise in making games for consoles, like the Sony PlayStation3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360, with Vivendi Games' Blizzard entertainment unit's online game capabilities.

Robert A. Kotick, the chief executive of Activision, told the Times that he thought his company needed to add such a component in an industry that is being transformed by the internet. He said that after exploring ways to develop such expertise within Activision, he decided that the better, if not only way, was to merge with another company.

"We looked every which way to figure out how to participate in what Blizzard had created," he said, "We couldn't find a way to duplicate it, but we could acquire the expertise."

The combination of the two companies, to be known as Activision Blizzard, comes at the end of a record year for video game sales.