For anyone hoping to play Call of Duty on their Nintendo Switch, that day may soon be coming.
Today, Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, took to Twitter to announce that Microsoft and Nintendo have signed a “binding 10-year contract to bring Xbox games to Nintendo’s gamers.” Smith specifically called out that the agreement will include titles like Call of Duty, which Microsoft is still working to acquire as part of the Activision Blizzard deal that is currently under regulatory scrutiny.
We’ve now signed a binding 10-year contract to bring Xbox games to Nintendo’s gamers. 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 statement says explicitly that the agreement will bring the franchise to “Nintendo players,” but did not specifically call out the Nintendo Switch, the company’s current console. That’s not surprising as Nintendo will likely release new generations of the Switch, or an entirely new console, in the next ten years.
The statement also says that Xbox games, like Call of Duty, will be available on Nintendo “the same day as Xbox, with full feature and content parity.”
Microsoft and Nintendo have now negotiated and signed a binding 10-year legal agreement to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo players – 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. We are committed to providing long term equal access to Call of Duty to other gaming platforms, bringing more choice to more players and more competition to the gaming market.
The announcement comes on the same day that Microsoft and Sony are meeting with EU regulators in a closed-door meeting to talk about Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. That acquisition will need to go through for the Nintendo deal to happen.
