It is clearly too early to say in what year the first Call of Duty of this new contractual agreement will be available on a Nintendo machine, a machine that will undoubtedly not be the Switch, but its future replacement. This is of little consequence for now, the urgency for Microsoft is to emphasize the desire to share the Call of Duty franchise with as many platforms and players as possible. A way to allay the fear of the competition authority, in particular the Competition and Markets Authority of the United Kingdom, the European Commission or the Federal Trade Commission from the United States, who are not positive for the time being about the miraculous project of acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft.
Microsoft and Nintendo have now negotiated and signed a ten-year legal agreement to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo gamers – the same day as Xbox, with full functionality and content parity – so they can experience Call of Duty like Xbox and PlayStation gamers. We are committed to providing equal access to Call of Duty to other gaming platforms over the long term, creating more choice for more players and more competition in the gaming market. It is part of our commitment to bringing Xbox games and Activision games to life. titles like Call of Duty for more players on more platforms.
And finally, why stop at Call of Duty? It’s good that this implies the message Brad Smith posted on Twitter, in which the Microsoft executive claims that this agreement is part of a larger package aimed at releasing Xbox games on Nintendo consoles. Of course, Redmond’s two neighbors have already had to work together, especially when it comes to taking charge cross play on the different versions of Minecraft (a train that PlayStation took a little later), then inviting the characters Banjo and Kazooie into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate or more recently to finally bring the Nintendo 64 classic, GoldenEye 007, to modern platforms.
By showing flexibility, Microsoft is trying to score points to get the green light for its major acquisition project of Activision Blizzard, a $69 billion operation without any equivalent in the video game industry and entertainment in general. Incidentally, releasing home-made games on Nintendo consoles probably wouldn’t hurt business at a time when Microsoft’s latest results show a drop in Xbox console and game sales, a far cry from the growth Sony has seen with booked his playstation5.
It should be added that the timing of this announcement is no coincidence, as Microsoft is today going to the European Commission to convince it to approve the continuation of its takeover bid for Activision Blizzard.
We have now signed a binding 10-year contract to bring Xbox games to Nintendo’s gamers. This is just part of our commitment to bringing Xbox games and Activision titles like Call of Duty to more players on more platforms. pic.twitter.com/JmO0hzw1BO
—Brad Smith (@BradSmi) February 21, 2023
