Microsoft has pledged to carry Call Of Duty to Nintendo platforms in a 10-year deal if its buyout of Activision Blizzard is authorized.
The announcement was tweeted by Xbox boss Phil Spencer, who wrote: “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.”
Spencer additionally confirmed that Microsoft will proceed to launch Call Of Duty video games on Steam “simultaneously with Xbox” if the deal goes by.
I’m additionally happy to substantiate that Microsoft has dedicated to proceed to supply Call of Duty on @Steam concurrently to Xbox after we’ve got closed the merger with Activision Blizzard King. @ATVI_AB @ValveSoftware
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) December 7, 2022
Microsoft beforehand supplied the identical 10-year deal to Sony to maintain Call Of Duty on PlayStation, which the corporate hasn’t publicly agreed to. Sony has beforehand argued Microsoft’s possession of the Call of Duty model may affect gamers to modify console platforms, regardless of the corporate’s public dedication to proceed releasing Call Of Duty video games on PlayStation.
In an interview with New York Times in regards to the considerations, Spencer mentioned: “There’s been some question about whether what we’re saying is actually how we’re acting, and I think having two major industry partners kind of show that our intent is real and that we can reach agreements is an important thing in this time.”
Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard again in January in a deal that was estimated to have value roughly £50billion ($68billion). The transfer has confronted scrutiny from quite a few regulatory our bodies, together with the Federal Trade Commission within the US and the Competition and Markets Authority within the UK.
Last month, Spencer claimed the corporate’s takeover of Activision Blizzard was extra targeted on gaining traction on cellular, reasonably than Call Of Duty.
“If we’re not able to find customers on phones, on any screen that someone wants to play on, you really are going to get segmented to a niche part of gaming that running a global business will become very challenging,” Spencer mentioned to The Verge’s Decoder podcast.
Currently, there are not any Call Of Duty video games on Nintendo Switch. The final mainline title to be launched on a Nintendo platform was 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts for the Wii U. Various installments had been additionally launched on the Nintendo DS and Wii, together with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World At War.
