Just this morning we started with the news that Microsoft, in its rush to demonstrate to competition agencies that buying Activision Blizzard will also improve the industry, has reached a pre-deal with Steam and Nintendo (surprisingly), to continue bringing the Call of Duty franchise to its platforms for the next 10 years. It’s something official, and while Nintendo hasn’t spoken, or any of its members, they’ve done so on Steam, from the mouth of Gabe Newell himself.
This was in response to Kotaku, who directly asked Newell himself after Microsoft released the deal, who said that is happy that Microsoft will continue to use Steam to bring Call of Duty to users after the Activision purchase. For them, this is another sign that in turn they are also happy with the treatment of users with their products. But it goes further:
Microsoft offered and even submitted to us a long-term commitment project for Call of Duty, but it was not necessary for us because a) we do not believe in requiring a partner to have an agreement that obliges him to release games on Steam in the future b) Phil and the gaming team at Microsoft have always done what they told us they were going to do, so we believe in their intentions and c) we believe that Microsoft has all the motivation they need to be on the platforms and devices where Call of Duty users want to be.
Steam and Microsoft have been and will be good partners
The current situation for Steam desde luego es beneficiosa, pues tanto Microsoft, en su giro de empezar a decerer all las franquicias de estreno de Xbox también en PC, pronto dejó que se lanzaran también en su plataforma, al igual que Sony, que está virando in the same way. However, the Call of Duty thing was something more special, because it was for 5 long years in its own launcher, in which it was joined with Blizzard titles, which, in fact, are still kept outside of Steam.
Therefore, it is a commitment that, although from the outside it seems insignificant, ensuring that players can continue to use Steam to play Call of Duty is a great success, because the less separated the community, the better c ‘is. Also, it works great with all of its franchises, like Halo or Forza, why should they act otherwise?
