Microsoft has announced a 10-year agreement with Nintendo that will guarantee the publishing of every Call of Duty game on the Japanese company’s platform on the same day as Xbox.
Microsoft is currently in the process of acquiring Call of Duty-owner Activision Blizzard in a deal worth $68.7 billion. However, the fate of this deal hangs in the balance even as three major regulators continue to question its effect on competition.
If the acquisition goes through, the 10-year agreement will see Microsoft launch every new Call of Duty game on Nintendo platforms on “the same day as Xbox, with full feature and content parity.”
This will certainly be a challenge for developers considering how limited the hardware capacity of the Nintendo Switch but this announcement could also that a new console launch is right around the corner.
In fact, while the deal has been disclosed, there is no date to signify when it starts. So it may well skip the Switch console and commence when its replacement is launched in the future.
The timing of this announcement is certainly strategic given that Microsoft will be arguing its case with the EU’s European Commission today. The company had even offered a similar deal for Sony’s PlayStation consoles but that unsurprisingly wasn’t accepted.
Microsoft has been on an acquisition spree over the past few years. Just when we were getting over its buying of Bethesda-owner ZeniMax for $7.5 billion, it announced the purchase of Activision for a whopping sum of $68.7 billion.
But it’s still important to note that the Microsoft-Activision deal hasn’t overcome its obstacles and could well end up in the trash. In that case, this new Nintendo deal will also turn history.