Microsoft Enters 10-Year Commitment to Bring Call of Duty to Nintendo Platforms - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 06 December 2022 / 3,273 Views
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer announced Microsoft has entered a 10-year commitment with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo platforms if Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition is approved.
"Microsoft has entered into a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo following the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King," said Spencer. "Microsoft is committed to helping bring more games to more people – however they choose to play."
Spencer added Microsoft is committed to keep releasing Call of Duty on Steam alongside Xbox after the deal closes.
"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."
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
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith added the acquisition will being Call of Duty to more players and thanked Nintendo for the agreement. Microsoft will be more than happy to talk with Sony when they want to sit down and sign the 10-year deal for PlayStation.
"Our acquisition will bring Call of Duty to more gamers and more platforms than ever before," said Smith. "That's good for competition and good for consumers. Thank you Nintendo. Any day Sony wants to sit down and talk, we'll be happy to hammer out a 10-year deal for PlayStation as well."
Our acquisition will bring Call of Duty to more gamers and more platforms than ever before. That's good for competition and good for consumers. Thank you @Nintendo. Any day @Sony wants to sit down and talk, we'll be happy to hammer out a 10-year deal for PlayStation as well. https://t.co/m1IQxdeo6n
— Brad Smith (@BradSmi) December 7, 2022
The Communications Workers of America (CWA), one of America's largest unions, this month called for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the USA to approve Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition.
CWA president Chris Shelton at the time stated that Sony has been one of the few companies who have been vocally against the acquisition and stays there is a "stark contrast of interests." If the deal is approved it would mean Activision Blizzard workers in the US "fighting sexual harassment and other poor working conditions stand to finally have a voice on the job and a chance to shape working conditions throughout the industry, and gamers will have allies inside a corporation with real protections for speaking out in consumers’ interests.
"If the merger is disapproved, the power relations within the gaming industry for labor stay the same, Sony protects its very profitable position as the industry leader, and consumers will have to wait and see if subscription services mature into a viable gaming option."
Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has so far been approved in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Serbia unconditionally.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Smart move by Xbox, this will make Sony look bad to the regulators for refusing Xbox's 10 year deal.
I just hope Switch 2 has good enough specs to not hold CoD development back too much. If Nintendo can get Switch 2 specs to like 60% of Series S's specs, I would imagine they would just need to scale the resolution down to like 720p docked, 540p handheld, and tone back a few other graphics settings as necessary. Hopefully won't take months of difficult optimization like many AAA games on Switch 1 require in order to have good graphics and performance.
Switch 1 shouldn't cause any issues at least, there is no CoD releasing in 2023 according to reputable leaker Jason Schreier, only a singleplayer and multiplayer expansion for CoD MW2 developed by Sledgehammer, which will be bundled with the base game and resold as a full priced release next Holiday. I can't imagine that Activision would try to port that to Switch 1 even if the acquisition does close in time. They will likely start the 10 year deal with the next new CoD by Treyarch in 2024, and by Holiday 2024 Switch 2 should hopefully be out.
The reality that every knows, is that the deal will eventually go through. I think Sony is just trying to get as many concessions from MS as possible, but this is an unexpected and pleasant consequence. I imagine, Nintendo support will be start after 2023 which should be easy with a DLSS 3(+) supported Switch 2
How evil of them
This would def have to fit the Switch 2 bill, because I don't see the latest CoD working really well on Switch without it being Cloud based.
I swear Activision-B had concerns about profits in the last few years, like they were completely ignoring something.
...We live in a world where Nintendo seems poised to be getting better third party support from Microsoft than Activision. That company deserved to be consumed by a bigger fish.
I mean they seemed content with milking whatever they could for eyars from Sony, MS and PC, I don't see how Nintendo is somehow equal to all 3 combined or a bigger juggernaut.
I still remember the days of when Acti had to make a different version of their games just to suit Ninty hw at the time, not because they were "deserving" of special treatment, but because their hw wasn't keeping up with the rest at the time (especially online gaming).
Bobby is just a greedy asshole in general, never once has he cared about video games.
Huh.
Well, alright then.
please phil not the cloud versions.. going to need a full 128GB SD Card to run one unless can keep filesizes lower with not needing 4k textures
Better together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH1rzghneDM&ab_channel=Minecraft
They already counting their chicken before it hatches!
Acquire the gaddamn thing first before u do the commitment bullsh"t
Point is without these kind of concessions acquisitions if this size won't get passed. Same if Sony would buy 2K, they likely would have to make concessions for Rockstar Games to get it approved.
Sony got a lot of flag recently, but this is certainly a welcoming outcome of their struggle.
Even if this is not what they intended, it should at least be recognized by Nintendo owners that they can now have Call of Duty too thanks to Sony.
Wow thats some mind games level of spin right there.
Essay Pro