Microsoft has signed an agreement to franchise Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty franchise to Nintendo, the company announced Dec. 9, pending the conclusion of the acquisition.
It’s a 10-year deal that means Call of Duty will expand beyond PC, PlayStation and Xbox platforms for Nintendo, as long as federal regulators approve the $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard Microsoft dollars. And Microsoft says that the deal will keep Call of Duty on PC on Steam for another decade.
Microsoft’s argument in the antitrust investigation that it has a smaller game market share than Sony or Tencent, and its commitment to keep Activision Blizzard’s biggest asset, Call of Duty on multiple platforms for a decade, shows goodwill. in conservation rather than competition in the game.
This means that Nintendo can bring Call of Duty to a platform of their choice over a 10-year period. Call of Duty will not only release on the Switch, which has reduced graphics compared to other platforms, but also on the Switch’s successor platform. It can take a while to actually make a new version of Call of Duty run on the Switch, and Nintendo will have time to roll out new hardware in the future. The Switch, which has been around since 2017, has sold more units than the latest ones from Microsoft and Sony.
Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s head of games, told the Washington Post that the company has brought titles like Minecraft to the Switch. Regulators were concerned that Microsoft’s motive in buying Activision Blizzard was to make its games exclusive to Microsoft’s platforms.
Meanwhile, a recent story that has been discussed by many people is that the US Federal Trade Commission is deadlocked with a “2-2 score” on whether to approve the merger or not. And in that situation, Microsoft is feeling pressure to make concessions so the deal can be passed. The Nintendo deal is certainly one such concession.
When asked if the Switch has enough specs to run Call of Duty smoothly, Spencer said: “Minecraft and Call of Duty are different games. But from the way you bring the game to Nintendo, the way you run a development team that is cross-platform, that’s the experience we have.” Sony didn’t accept a deal with Microsoft to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for a decade.
Microsoft said the deal to provide the hit video game Call of Duty on Nintendo is valid for 10 years, following the completion of a nearly $69 billion acquisition of game maker Activision Blizzard.
The massive merger is being closely watched by regulators in the US, Europe and elsewhere. Microsoft, the maker of the Xbox game, is facing opposition from Sony, and has expressed concern to competition authorities about losing access to the game. Microsoft President Brad Smith thanked Nintendo, the maker of the Switch, in a tweet and said Sony has a similar policy. “When Sony wants to sit down and talk, we’re also happy to sign a 10-year deal for PlayStation,” he said.
Smith said that with the deal, Call of Duty will be accessible to more players and platforms, which “benefits competition and players.” At the heart of the dispute is control of future versions of Activision Blizzard’s most popular games, most notably Call of Duty, a first-person military action game franchise. Activision reported last month that its most recent release, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, has grossed more than $1 billion since its October 28 release.