Call of Duty may be coming to Nintendo
(Picture: Call of Duty / Activision Publishing)Microsoft will bring the Call of Duty franchise to Nintendo as part of a 10-year pledge, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said in tweets. The move would bring the massively popular first-person shooter series to Nintendo consoles for the first time.
Microsoft is currently seeking regulatory approval of its $69 billion mega-deal with Call of Duty owner Activision Blizzard. Such an agreement is likely designed to appease watchdogs scrutinising the acquisition over concerns that it will impact competition.
The deal would hand Microsoft a raft of popular games under the Activision Blizzard umbrella, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Candy Crush Saga -- making it the world’s third-biggest gaming company behind China’s Tencent and Japan’s Sony.
I'm also pleased to confirm that Microsoft has committed to continue to offer Call of Duty on @Steam simultaneously to Xbox after we have closed the merger with Activision Blizzard King. @ATVI_AB @ValveSoftware
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) December 7, 2022
Fears that Microsoft will lock Activision’s popular gaming line-up to its own Xbox and Windows platforms has already spooked rival Sony, which has called on regulators to block the merger. The deal is currently being investigated by the EU, UK, and by the Federal Trade Commission in the US. Spencer also tweeted that Microsoft would continue to offer Call of Duty games on Steam, the popular online PC games retailer and distributor owned by Valve.
While Nintendo is best known for its wholesome Mario and Zelda games, the Japanese gaming giant has added more mature titles to its Switch console, including ultra-violent shooters Doom Eternal and Wolfenstein 2: The New Colosus. Still, Nintendo is not as big an outlet for games like Call of Duty compared to Sony’s Playstation 5.
There are also questions over whether the Switch could even handle newer franchise entries like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The console generally drops the resolution and frame rate to run more demanding games on TVs and in handheld mode, which results in rougher visuals compared to Sony and Xbox’s latest hardware. Though an upgraded Switch Pro has been rumoured for years, Nintendo has thus far kept mum on the matter.
Notably, the Nintendo Switch already has a few Activision Blizzard games, like the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy. It also has titles like The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and the aforementioned Doom Eternal from video game publisher Bethesda, whose parent company ZeniMax was acquired by Microsoft in March 2021.
But, those games can’t match Call of Duty in terms of revenue. As of last year, the war series had sold a whopping 400 million copies, with new releases racking up buffo sales on PC and consoles.
