In a rather surprising announcement, Microsoft president Brad Smith announced that Call of Duty is coming to Nintendo gamers. It’s part of a 10-year contract to “bring Xbox games to Nintendo’s gamers.”
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.
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. pic.twitter.com/JmO0hzw1BO
— Brad Smith (@BradSmi) February 21, 2023
Nintendo Switch isn’t technically mentioned in the statement above, but “Nintendo’s gamers.” While the Switch has had a great lifespan since 2017, this deal should extend into whatever platform Nintendo releases next. Hopefully it’ll have more hardware power and be able to run Call of Duty games without sacrificing visual quality and framerate.
The Call of Duty series is among the all-time best-selling franchises in gaming history, with over 400 million sold over the last two decades. The last time a Call of Duty game appeared on a Nintendo console was Call of Duty: Ghosts in 2013 on the Wii U.
