Microsoft Signs 10-Year Deal To Bring Future Xbox Games Including Call of Duty To Nintendo

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. From a report: 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.

More cloud versions?

[Gingernads]

These will most likely be cloud gaming releases on the current Switch unless they port some older COD games. Hopefully a future Switch 2 will have the power to run native versions.

The Art, of War.

[geekmux]

I know Nintendo is popular and all, but after a couple of decades of releasing some of the most realistic warfighting games on the planet, I really don't think Lego of Duty is going to hit quite as hard.

Spongebob Sniperpants on the other hand....that's just bad-ass.

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[geekmux]

Surely they'll have to do more than simply change the theme to get COD running on Nintendo's underpowered consoles.

I really don't think the color of the AR-15 is what lawmakers are concerned about when preening about the dangers of assault rifles.

Reinventing a warmongering "theme" should be the least of our concerns when bringing the Call of Duty to a kindergarten audience.

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[wed128]

Why would you assume a kindergarten audience? Honestly, i can't wait for an updated switch -- i'm in my late 30s, and it's my favorite console. I think its flexibility (portable mode, it supports every controller) is worth way more then the extra pixels my playstation can push...

The Switch has M rated titles

[Powercntrl]

You're a bit out of date, Nintendo has allowed mature rated games on their console for awhile now. I own a copy of South Park The Fractured but Whole for Switch and it's completely uncensored, f-bombs and all.

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[DarkOx]

Last COD I played was "World at War" so its been a while but I played it on a WII and it was plenty fun to play as shooters go. I am sure on PS3 and Xbox-whatever generation that was, you got much better textures, longer render depth of field and HD resolution.

The game however was good because it had good game play and interesting stories. How much did it suffer from being dialed down what the Wii could push, I don't know but I was happy to be able to play without having to buy another console or upgrade my

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[stealth_finger]

Nintendo won't be interested unless they can work mario, link or possibly samus into it somehow.

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[DarkRookie2]

Not Samus. She is the step child of their franchises. That series does not get enough love or games.

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[EvilSS]

a couple of decades of releasing some of the most realistic warfighting games on the planet

What game would that be because it's certainly not Call of Duty.

CoD? Meh.

[damn_registrars]

I own a Switch and play it fairly often. I really don't care about Call of Duty or any of the 5,123,987 other Quake clones in the Microsoft and Activision library.

I. Want. Battletoads.

Microsoft acquired all the IP for that franchise years ago and has since released ... one poorly received XBoxOne/Windows reboot of the original game.

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[geekmux]

I. Want. Battletoads. Microsoft acquired all the IP for that franchise years ago and has since released ... one poorly received XBoxOne/Windows reboot of the original game.

Battletoads. Gee, with such a realistic concept, I can't imagine how or why it was poorly received. It's almost as if Teenage Mutant Army Commanders doesn't stand a chance..../s

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[damn_registrars]

I. Want. Battletoads. Microsoft acquired all the IP for that franchise years ago and has since released ... one poorly received XBoxOne/Windows reboot of the original game.

can't imagine how or why it was poorly received

The reboot was just simply not that good, and it wasn't released on systems where people wanted to play it.

There are plenty of people who would play the original again on new hardware if MS would sell it. Instead we have no choice but to pirate the original NES ROM because the IP owners refuse to distribute it.

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[DarkRookie2]

CoD is a Halo clone, not a Quake clone. They have very different feelings.

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[damn_registrars]

CoD is a Halo clone, not a Quake clone

FPS is FPS is FPS. Halo added vehicles to Quake and called it new. The basic premise is no different. There is more evolutionary distance between Quake and Doom than between Quake and Halo. There has been almost no new technical ground broken in the FPS genre since Quake, and given how many billions of dollars they get per year selling these clones, it's unlikely that we'll see that change any time soon.

Oh yes

[DarkRookie2]

Just what I want. Over bloated, but pretty games that can't even do 60fps AFAIK on consoles.
And they want to spend the time and effort to port something that will run even worse? The Switch can't even keep BotW at a stable framerate.

Bring Nintendo games to the Xbox!

[mick232]

I don't care about the other way round.

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[Can'tNot]

Honestly, Nintendo seems like the better purchase. A lower market cap would have made it cheaper, their games are better and more unique, more recognizable characters and franchises, it would have drawn in millions of Nintendo fans... I doubt there's any such thing as an Activision fan.

The only reason I can think why they didn't go for Nintendo is that it wouldn't have been allowed by regulators.

Microsoft needs Nintendo more than vice versa

[krisbrowne42]

1. This deal makes Sony look like a petulant hold-out, with little to defend their recalcitrance on the Activision merger.
2. I have no doubt that MS would like very much to have a Switch client for Xbox Live that would open up a huge audience to their subscriptions when their other markers are pretty much saturated, and would make Apple look like a hold-out against that "progress"

What I want from the deal? Bethesda back catalog ports. Skyrim on Switch means there should be no reason Fallout 4 can't run t

Great. Won't run

[Torodung]

Unless Nintendo radically changes its business strategy, and I hope they don't, this won't run on anything Nintendo will ever produce.

So it's competitive shooter, as a cloud game running on Xbox hardware. Big whoop.

They won't even have to port. This is a bunch of political maneuvering, not an antitrust breakthrough.