Microsoft dropped a big announcement on us earlier today in relation to Nintendo, confirming that a 10-year commitment would see Call of Duty coming to that platform - as long as the company is successful in acquiring Activision Blizzard.
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has revealed a bit more about how this would work in a new interview with The Washington Post, explaining that it would "take a little bit of time" for development to begin on the new platform, especially if it takes until June 2023 for the acquisition to go through:
“You can imagine if [the deal] closed on that date, starting to do development work to make that happen would likely take a little bit of time... 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 was questioned about how well Call of Duty could run on a Nintendo console, and although he admitted it's a different scenario compared to something like Minecraft, there's plenty of experience behind the scenes to make it happen:
"Minecraft and Call of Duty are different games. But from how you get games onto Nintendo, how you run a development team that is targeting multiple platforms, that’s experience we have.”
In a separate interview with The New York Times, Spencer did admit there's "definitely work" to be done to make Call of Duty run efficiently on Nintendo's platform, but nevertheless he clearly seems confident it can be achieved.
It's not just Nintendo that has benefited from the "10-year commitment" from Microsoft, as the Steam platform on PC is also taking advantage of the same offer. Even Sony has been offered the same deal for PlayStation, but according to Microsoft, there's been no response from the company as of yet.
Interested to see Call of Duty on Nintendo Switch? Tell us in the comments below.
Comments 26
Really clever move on Microsoft's side. Show's good will, calls out Sony on their bs and will give them additional revenue.
Doubt they games would be cloud versions of the actual games. CoD is also on mobile platforms, so Switch won't be an issue.
News flash, it wont. And if they are playing against users on other platforms, they gonna get wrecked
Smart move, once again aimed firmly at regulators to say "we won't be single platform so don't regulate us".
This isn't really about COD exclusivity for Microsoft, which was never really on the table, it is about Game Pass and getting these games, and others, on it. They will do almost anything to do that.
(Thanks @tho_mi for the correction)
@themightyant, nope, it seems like they have contracts in place that have been signed. So not "just words". But of course, we don't know what the contracts actually say.
@tho_mi Thanks for the heads up. Missed that news story earlier, only saw the quotes here. Will amend my comment as it's wrong.
Now Sony look like the bad guys.
And they probably are 😊
@themightyant you're welcome
@Dezzy70 Yes. This is playing out both with regulators and here in the court of public opinion. Sony definitively losing the later.
But I wouldn't say anyone is the 'bad guy', it's just business at the end of the day. If tables were turned and MS were the smaller company but in Sony's dominant position they would be trying to block the deal too, any sensible business would.
@themightyant
True, business is business.
Nintendo won't have a console powerful enough to run call of duty within the next 30 years nevermind 10.
Not sure how good the game would play on a Switch. Nintendo has 3rd party game issues. It's long overdue for Nintendo to upgrade their hardware.
Weird I'm reading about this on Pure Xbox when I should also see it on NL. In any case, cool.
Maybe xbox will overhaul nintendos online system for them.
@Somebody I freaking wish
@UltimateOtaku91 GameCube, Wii, and WiiU all had CoD games. Granted, GCN was the generation's most powerful console until XB launched, and the Wii games were custom versions of CoD for Wii. WiiU had the 360 version of BLOPS2 and Ghosts, the game of X1 "Call of Doggy" launch infamy. Most bizarrely the DS (not 3DS, DS!) had its own CoD games.
Switch 1 certainly is long in the tooth, but it's impressive the things that have been able to run on it all the same, including Diablo 3, Diablo 2, Overwatch 2, Spyro remastered, Crash 4, from ABK. It's not like there's not a lot of Switch knowledge inside ABK already, they've done impressive work on it.
It's really not that unfathomable that Switch 2 could run a modern CoD game. It won't run it like an XSX or PS5 or super PC, but it's reasonable to expect it can run fine at 1080p@30 or better on the next hardware - and this deal is all about Switch 2, it'll take years of development, and Switch 2 will surely be out by then. The bigger issue is just the nature of handheld hybrids and wireless connection. Splatoon players will all know what I - A Communication Error Has Occurred.
I can dream that part of this deal includes offering Microsoft hosted dedicated servers for Splatoon. I know I should dream instead of falling in into a manhole filled with money because it's more likely, but let me dream.
they should just stream it to the switch they already have the capability to do that
@UltimateOtaku91 ROFL, dream on. 😂
I don’t care if it’s the worst version, bring it on. I put so much time into Black Ops 2 for Wii U, I can handle anything!
By the time the deal closes in summer 2023, 2023 COD is off the table. Too late for a port of that.
By the time we start talking about 2024 COD, we will probably have a Switch successor, which will make development work much more feasible.
Clever to sell something you don't own in an attempt to influence regulators, but I'd assume they can see through these parlor tricks.
Still, whatever the reasons, COD on Ninty will be welcomed by many, so its only good news
Very nice move Microsoft. This is a huge win for Nintendo fans. They’ve been missing out on CoD. Who knows what they will get next year. As the article mentioned if the deal closes in June of 2023, the release for Nintendo will be later. Getting them all out at the same time in the future will be a challenge but I think the team can do it.
As for Sony, I think they were trying to come up with another excuse for the 10 year contract before this news with Nintendo was released. It’s going to be harder to argue but I’m sure Sony will come up with something to complain about.
For Switch, I'd happily take a master chief collection-style thing.
So like one would have MW123 campaigns and then have a multiplayer mode that acts as a "best of" the three, then the next year repeat with the "black ops collection" and have WaW, BO1,2,3?(i forget which one actually had a story)
@EvilSilentFrame I think Sony's complaints might start to fall on deaf ears the more they become the sole objector.
@JayJ I’m sure it will. They might have had the regulators looking into their claims. I mean that’s their job but in the end, but I think Sony is going to fall short with their plan on stopping the acquisition from happening.
@Sebatrox
Lol make that switch 3 by the time they start development.
@EvilSilentFrame Yup, the regulators duty is to look out for everyone in the industry, not just Sony.
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