Microsoft Committed to Bringing Call Of Duty to Nintendo Platforms – If Activision’s Blizzard Deal Passes

Prior to the pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft announced a 10-year commitment that would see Call of Duty games republished on the Nintendo platform. The deal was announced in a tweet by Phil Spencer, who added that Call of Duty games will also continue to be made available to PC players on Steam concurrently with Xbox.

Spencer’s tweet was light on details, though the Xbox head elaborated on some in an interview with washington articles, saying that the entire Call of Duty catalog will be evaluated for a potential Switch release. He hinted that it could be a while before we see the first Call of Duty title on Switch, with development likely to begin only after the merger deal closes, slated for December. June 2023 if approved by regulatory authorities.

“Once we get on board with this, our plan will be when [a Call of Duty game] released on PlayStation, Xbox and PC, it will also be available on Nintendo at the same time,” added Spencer.

When asked if it would be difficult to port Call of Duty titles to the Switch, Spencer pointed to Microsoft’s experience in shipping Minecraft on the handheld console. “Minecraft and Call of Duty are different games,” he added, “But from the way you bring the game to Nintendo, the way you run a development team that is cross-platform, that’s the experience we have. I have.”

Although the current agreement with Nintendo is for 10 years, Spencer said it is likely that Microsoft will continue to work with the company after this period. “It’s just about choosing an expiration date, not with the goal of expiring forever, but more like, the legitimacy of a document having to say this will pass someday,” he explains. .

Microsoft still has a number of regulatory hurdles to overcome before its merger with Activision Blizzard is approved by the FTC, although it has deleted in other regions. Competitor Sony has risen Call of Duty’s potential to be exclusive is the reason why the merger was not approved, however the company is said to have not accepted an agreement that will keep the franchise on PlayStation in 10 years. “We weren’t able to make progress with Sony,” said Spencer washington articles when asked about the deal.