Microsoft has signed a binding 10-year legal agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo players, presuming the company’s colossal $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard is approved.
Since the acquisition announcement last year, Microsoft has been attempting to prove to government agencies like the U.S.’ Federal Trade Commission that this acquisition does not fall into any monopolistic activity and would not harm competitors like PlayStation. However, Microsoft has had a bit of a rough go at it. To counter, though, the company has been proactive in attempting to get the greenlight from the FTC, going as far as promising PlayStation that Call of Duty games will continue to come to Sony’s consoles and agreeing to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo hardware.
Now, Microsoft president and vice chair Brad Smith has announced on Twitter that Microsoft has formally signed a legally binding 10-year agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty games to Nintendo players. Here’s the statement Smith released on behalf of Microsoft, in full:
“Microsoft and Nintendo have now negotiated and signed a binding 10-year legal agreement to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo players – the same day as Xbox, with full feature and content parity – so they can experience Call of Duty just as Xbox and PlayStation gamers enjoy Call of Duty. We are committed to providing long term equal access to Call of Duty to other gaming platforms, bringing more choice to more players and more competition to the gaming market.”
We’ve now signed a binding 10-year contract to bring Xbox games to Nintendo’s gamers. This is just part of our commitment to bring 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
Many have already begun to speculate how Activision Blizzard will bring Call of Duty games to Nintendo consoles, which are traditionally much less powerful than current-gen Xbox and PlayStation consoles, with “full feature and content parity.”
If I had to guess, Call of Duty will likely go the route of cloud gaming seen on the Switch, unless Nintendo’s next console is set to be a significantly more powerful piece of hardware. Only time will tell.
In the meantime, read Game Informer’s thoughts on the latest Call of Duty in our Modern Warfare II review.
Do you think bringing Call of Duty to Nintendo platforms is a big deal? Let us know in the comments below!
