Microsoft Signs Legally Binding Contract to Bring Call of Duty to Nintendo Platforms for 10 Years - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 21 February 2023 / 3,260 Views
Microsoft announced it has signed a "binding 10-year legal agreement" to bring Call of Duty games to Nintendo platforms if Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition is approved.
The new legally binding agreement will guarantee Call of Duty games will release on Nintendo platforms the same day as Xbox with "full feature and content parity." This is so those on Nintendo platforms "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, brining more choice to more players and more competition to the gaming market," reads the statement from Microsoft.
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
The last Call of Duty game released on a Nintendo platform was 2013's Call of Duty: Ghosts on the Wii U.
Previously Microsoft had entered a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo platforms, as well as committing to keep releasing Call of Duty on Steam alongside Xbox after the deal closes.
Microsoft has also previously stated it offered a similar agreement with Sony.
"We’ve offered Sony a 10-year contract to make each new Call of Duty release available on PlayStation the same day it comes to Xbox," said Microsoft president Brad Smith at the time. "We’re open to providing the same commitment to other platforms and making it legally enforceable by regulators in the US, UK, and European Union."
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 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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"Same day release, with full feature and content parity" is an interesting sentence.
Do we think they would do this for Switch, unless it's a cloud version? Or do they know that the Switch successor will come out before the first Call of Duty game that falls under this contract does?
The Nintendo deal wouldn't start until the acquisition closes, which best case scenario is late 2023 at this point, too late to include a day one release on CoD 2023 as Activision wouldn't already have it in development when the deal closes, it would take months to develop a non-Cloud Switch port after it closes. So the 10 year deal then would start on the 2024 CoD around November 2024 presumably. So maybe they know Switch 2 is coming before CoD 2024's likely release window in November 2024, possibly a March 2024 release, much like Switch 1's March 2017 release. Or maybe CoD 2024 would be a launch title for Switch 2 Holiday 2024.
The idea of the contract for me is silly because really, Activision should have been doing this ages ago. Why were they not dipping into the Switch revenue? Blizzard are happy to put their games on it.
I agree that it seems strange. But they were truly busting their butts to get Call of Duty out on its current platforms every year. They had three studios working on CoD, but then further by making more and more studios into CoD support studios, to the point that it had become almost all-consuming for Activision. Adding Switch on to there would add complexity to a system that was barely keeping up with Xbox/PS/PC.
So while it seems like it should have been a no-brainer, there was likely good reason for it.
Fun possibility.
There's nothing blocking MS from requiring you to have a "Xbox account" or paying for "online service".
CoD is on Switch, full parity, but they may require Xbox account and something like Xbox live gold...
please phil dont let them be cloud versions
This totally embarrasses Sony for not agreeing to the CoD deal already.
Sony spent all this time complaining about call of duty as the primary reason why this deal shouldn’t go through, and refuse to sign any Call of Duty deal…….. Nintendo on the other hand hasn’t missed call of duty in a long time, and they are the 1st ones to 1st to sign the deal.
Total embarrassment for Sony
What's embarrassing is trying to buy your way into competition rather than utilizing your abundance of resources to actually make good games that entices players into investing in your platform rather than buying other peoples' franchises. Dreamcast was an amazing platform with tons of great games but the first sign of underperformance Sega got yeeted out of the console market. How is Microsoft entitled to anything? If they can't deliver, they should fuck off and let someone else try.
But what about after those 10 years?
Honestly though it's a real question. Not for people but for the FTC and CMA. MS is basically saying we will be open with our games for 10 years after that we can do what we want. You really think the FTC and CMA want to hear that?
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