Microsoft wants to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo consoles after Activision acquisition

Microsoft has announced through Xbox CEO Phil Spencer that it is ‘committed’ to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo consoles for a period of ten years. This will not be an issue until the Activision Blizzard King acquisition goes through.

Spencer reports this on Twitter, adding that this commitment is in line with Microsoft’s commitment to helping “make more games available to more people,” regardless of how they play the games. The commitment seems to mean that Call of Duty will become available for Nintendo and will remain there for at least ten years. It is unclear which Call of Duty games it would be and no specific consoles are mentioned, but it will undoubtedly concern the Nintendo Switch. It is also unknown how Nintendo views this.

This aim fits previous statements by Spencer stating that he envisions the Minecraft model and wants to treat Call of Duty as such. Minecraft is present on many different platforms and according to Spencer, that is also the foreland of Call of Duty if the $ 69 billion acquisition goes through. He also said that he would like to see Call of Duty on the Switch and that the franchise will be present on the PlayStation.

The New York Times suggests that the offer to make Call of Duty available to Nintendo is an attempt to please the US Federal Trade Commission. This regulator could vote against the acquisition desired by Microsoft during a closed session on Thursday. Politico reported rather that it is likely that the FTC will file a lawsuit to block the acquisition. The conscious four committee members of this regulator are said to be skeptical of Microsoft’s arguments and fear that the company would gain an unfair advantage and limit competition in the market.

With regard to the PlayStation consoles, Microsoft recently confirmed that it has made an offer to Sony to make Call of Duty available for ten years. In addition, the titles would be released simultaneously on both Xbox and PlayStation consoles. This offer was confirmed by Microsoft CEO Brad Smith. With this deal, he wants to ensure that this possible license agreement is ‘legally enforceable in the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union’. It is unclear whether Sony would agree to this agreement. Smith also stressed that excluding PlayStation consoles would not make economic sense.