EA have tried and proven games and franchises via licence that they make money off. Activision has money to burn from 1 franchise of their own to do this. That is the only difference I see.
FIFA and Madden pays for the development of anything Bioware makes as sadly, they will always outsell a Bioware master piece (and Dragon Age 2). Call of Duty is funding the development of Activision licenced games they have to fulfill (Transformers/Marvel, although I hear the Marvel contract is now over).
But comparing the 2 games is question it was a matter of risk, EA were not willing to put the money in Titalfall due to high risk which is why funding came from elsewhere. Games like Syndicate or Fuse didn't sell many and presumably cost more than they made, they were a risk. EA seem to shy away from that. Activision is playing it safe in many respects with Destiny's development, a big name team and a lot of marketing which has all been gained from yearly CoD games. Their risks are licence games like Transformers or X-men games which would come with some funding from the licence holders..
...Yeah, the above sounds good. I'll go with this.
Hmm, pie.
