Microsoft Signs Binding 10-year Legal Agreement With Nintendo For Call Of Duty:
Microsoft has signed a 10-year legal agreement with Japanese gaming giant Nintendo to bring Call of Duty games to Nintendo’s players. Today’s announcement is a follow-up to Xbox boss Phil Spencer’s December 2022 reveal, where he committed to bringing Call of Duty games to Nintendo platforms following the merge of Microsoft Activision Blizzard King.
Microsoft Continues To Try And Prove Its Activision Blizzard Merger:
As Microsoft continues to try and prove its Activision Blizzard merger won’t negatively affect the video game industry, Xbox has confirmed a decade-long deal to bring Call of Duty games to Nintendo has been reached. The statement confirms the series will be the same version of the game that launches on other platforms.
Call Of Duty Will Be Available To Nintendo Players On The Same Day As Xbox:
Call of Duty will be available to Nintendo players on the same day as Xbox with “full feature and content parity” under a 10-year agreement between the two platforms, Microsoft’s Brad Smith announced. The deal was announced in early December, but Smith is offering more details today ahead of a hearing in which Microsoft will argue its case with EU regulators to allow its $69 billion acquisition of Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard to proceed, Reuters reports.
Brad Smith Announced Legal Agreement Between Microsoft And Nintendo:
Microsoft president Brad Smith announced on Twitter that the legal agreement between Microsoft and Nintendo meant “to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo players the same day as Xbox with full feature and content parity.”
The official statement further adds that Microsoft is committed to providing equal long-term access to CoD to other platforms and more competition to the gaming market. This last line stands out and is seen as a dig at the ongoing Activision saga between Xbox and PlayStation.
“Microsoft and Nintendo have now negotiated and signed a binding ten-year legal agreement to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo players,” the statement reads. “The same day as Xbox with full feature and content parity so they can experience Call of Duty just as Xbox and PlayStation gamer enjoy Call of Duty.
” Noteworthy that PlayStation is mentioned as Xbox tries to assure regulators it has no plans to take the series away from PlayStation.
This Deal Had Initially Been Disclosed In December 2022 By Xbox:
As mentioned, this deal had initially been disclosed in December 2022 by Xbox boss Phil Spencer, so the delayed signing is a slight surprise to those tuning into this agreement. Now that it’s been fully endorsed, Nintendo fans should expect future Call of Duty titles to be released on their preferred console simultaneously with Xbox systems.
Many players, however, are still skeptical of Nintendo consoles’ abilities to handle the dynamic motion and high graphical output of Call of Duty games. FPS drops and performance issues have always been common problems on other platforms, so the relatively less powerful hardware of the Switch will surely struggle and face the same performance issues.
Outside of the European Union, Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition has also faced opposition from UK and US regulators. The USA’s Federal Trade Commission filed a legal challenge to block the acquisition in early December 2022, arguing that it would “enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business.
” Meanwhile, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority said the deal “could result in higher prices, fewer choices, or less innovation for UK gamer,” in provisional filings announced earlier this month.
Japanese Gaming Giant Eventually Released More Advanced System For Games:
It’s worth noting, though, that since this Microsoft-Nintendo agreement is a decade-long deal, the Japanese gaming giant could eventually release a more advanced system during its course that can handle visually sophisticated games like Call of Duty because playing Modern Warfare on the Switch doesn’t seem like a good time for anyone involved.