Microsoft announces 10-year deal with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Switch

Although Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is still in progress and has not yet been approved, Microsoft is not hiding any promises.CEO Phil Spencer announced via twitter That Microsoft has reached a ten-year commitment with Nintendo to launch a Call of Duty game on its platform After merging with Activision Blizzard.

Spencer also added that the games will still be available on Steam and Xbox, declaring in his original tweet, “Microsoft is committed to helping bring more games to more people — no matter what they choose to play.”

That’s all Spencer shared on Twitter, but he detailed the announcement in a recent interview with The Washington Post. According to reports, in the interview, Spencer said, “We still need to look at the entire product portfolio to see which games can be transferred to the Switch. There is no confirmation when Call of Duty will land on the Switch.”

Regarding the merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, which is scheduled to close in June 2023, Spencer said: “You can imagine, if [the deal] Closing that day, it might take a little while to start developing the work to make this happen. The ultimate plan is that when a Call of Duty game launches on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, it will also launch on Switch at the same time.

Spencer was also asked if porting the Call of Duty game to the Switch would be difficult, citing Minecraft and Microsoft’s experience porting it to the Nintendo handheld. “Minecraft and Call of Duty are different games. But from how you bring a game to Nintendo, how you run a development team targeting multiple platforms, that’s our experience,” Spencer explained.

While the deal Spencer announced is a ten-year commitment, he also said that Microsoft may partner with Nintendo after that time. With that in mind, however, Microsoft still has some hurdles to discuss with the FTC before development can begin.