In a clear strike at Sony and its PlayStation platform, Microsoft has committed to bringing the Call of Duty franchise to Nintendo consoles for the next ten years, following its (hopeful) acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Microsoft has entered into a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to @Nintendo following the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King. Microsoft is committed to helping bring more games to more people – however they choose to play. @ATVI_AB
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) December 7, 2022
CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer announced the news on Tweeter, in addition to confirming “that Microsoft has committed to continue to offer Call of Duty on Steam simultaneously to Xbox.”
It’s not hard to see this as a clear public ploy to show regulators, currently mulling the A$102.7 billion takeover bid, that it has no plans of anticompetitive behaviour when it comes to keeping Activision Blizzard’s tentpole franchise from other consoles.
Spencer elaborated on this in a Washington Post interview, saying the entire Call of Duty catalogue may be ported to Switch, however stressed that development can only start once, and if, the merger closed – at the earliest, June 2023.
“Once we get into the rhythm of this, our plan would be that when [a Call of Duty game} launches on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, that it would also be available on Nintendo at the same time,” Spencer said.
Spencer also said the ten-year time-frame is likely to be much longer.
“It’s just about picking an expiration date, not with the goal of ever expiring, but just like, the legalese of a document has to say this goes through some date,” he clarified.
