Microsoft president Brad Smith announced that the company has signed a 10-year deal to bring Xbox games — including Call of Duty once it is acquired — to Nintendo players.
The signed deal means Microsoft is living up to its promise to the Federal Trade Commission that it will make Call of Duty available to other platform companies like Nintendo if its $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard is approved.
Smith said in a tweet, “This is just part of our commitment to bring Xbox games and Activision titles like Call of Duty to more players on more platforms.”
The binding agreement means that Nintendo players will get the games on the same day as Xbox, with full feature and content parity, so they can experience Call of Duty just as Xbox and PlayStation gamers enjoy Call of Duty.
Microsoft said it is committed to providing long-term equal access to Call of Duty to other gaming platforms. The FTC has sued Microsoft for potential antitrust claims, and Microsoft has not yet been able to strike a similar deal with Sony, which is trying to get regulators to quash the deal.
The feature parity claim is interesting because I think it means that Microsoft will bring the game to a new Nintendo console that hasn’t been announced yet, as such a machine would be able to run the full Call of Duty game. The Nintendo Switch isn’t capable of running the full Call of Duty, I believe.
I think the wording is very careful. Microsoft said it is bringing the games to Nintendo gamers, but it did not specifically say it is bringing games to the Switch.