Nintendo and Microsoft have signed a deal which guarantees Call of Duty will be coming to Nintendo platforms for 10 years.
Microsoft president Brad Smith announced today that Nintendo Switch (and any subsequent Nintendo platforms) will be getting the Call of Duty series part of as a binding 10-year contract. The documents were signed following the initial promise back in December .
Smith took to Twitter, saying “This is just part of our commitment to bring Xbox games and Activision titles like Call of Duty to more players on more platforms”. Xbox offered a similar 10-year deal to PlayStation during its buyout negotiations, but the company rebuffed the offer, prompting Activision's Bobby Kotick to accuse the company of attempting to sabotage the deal.
While Smith states in the tweet that the deal is "a binding 10-year contract to bring Xbox games to Nintendo’s gamers”, the image attached to the tweet only mentions Call of Duty by name. The UK’s CMA only seemed to be bothered about Call of Duty when it published its report earlier this month , so there's a possibility that this deal only applies to Call of Duty. We have reached out to a Microsoft rep for clarification but they did not provide comment, so it’s safe to assume this deal probably won’t extend to Bethesda and Xbox exclusives.
Obviously, the specific mention of Call of Duty makes it clear that this deal only comes into effect if the Microsoft Activision deal goes through. The timing of this is convenient as Microsoft’s Brad Smith is meeting with EU regulators this week (via Reuters) . And it feels like a bit of an empty gesture to convince regulators to allow the deal to go through.
Modern Wario-fare
Lets get it out of the way; does anyone actually want to play Call of Duty on Nintendo Switch? I love the Switch, but there's no denying that it’s not exactly a powerhouse. Considering that the current Call of Duty games are being built with console tech two generations ahead of the Switch, I can’t imagine it would be the smoothest transition – no one wants to play Warzone 2 at 15fps.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I go to the Nintendo Switch for Nintendo’s legendary catalogue of exclusive series like Super Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong. As well as smaller independent titles; not AAA powerhouses like Call of Duty.
Of course, it couldn’t hurt to have the series on Switch from Nintendo’s perspective, even during the Xbox 360 and PS3 era Activision was bringing Call of Duty titles to the comparatively underpowered Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS systems. But I do think Microsoft knows that Call of Duty is nowhere near as big of a factor for Nintendo as it is for Sony, and that this is purely to look good to regulators.
However, if the Nintendo Switch 2 ends up being underpowered compared to its contemporaries like the Switch, Wii U and Wii before it, could having to cater to a lower-spec platform end up hurting Call of Duty’s overall quality? Or will we end up with poor cloud versions like the Resident Evil and Kingdom Hearts games face on the Switch?
