LogInAccording to the contract, Call of Duty games will be available on Nintendo platforms the same day they will come to Xbox, with "full feature and content parity."
The vice chairman and president of Microsoft Brad Smith has announced that the company has officially signed a 10-year agreement with Nintendo that will bring Xbox games, including the Call of Duty titles – if its Activision deal goes through, to Nintendo platforms.
In December last year, Microsoft revealed its commitment to release the future Call of Duty games on Nintendo Switch at the same time as they arrive on other platforms. At the time, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer shared that the company intended to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo for 10 years if its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard was approved.
He also noted that the ten-year period had been chosen only because "the legalese of a document has to say this goes through some date" but that Microsoft was ready to cooperate with Nintendo beyond that period.
Now, president Brad Smith has announced that the "binding" 10-year agreement has been signed, confirming that Nintendo would get the same access to Call of Duty as Xbox.
"Microsoft and Nintendo have now negotiated and signed a binding 10-year legal agreement to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo players — the same days as Xbox, with full feature and content parity," Microsoft said in a statement.
Additionally, Smith noted that the 10-yeat contract is "just part of [the company's] commitment to bring Xbox games and Activision titles like Call of Duty to more players on more platforms."
Microsoft previously stated that it was committed to releasing the Call of Duty games on Steam simultaneously with the Xbox release and also offered a similar 10-year deal to Sony that would make the shooter series releases available on PlayStation consoles the same day they come to Xbox.
The deals are part of Microsoft's efforts to convince regulators to approve its proposed $69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard as the company is facing serious roadblocks from global regulators – the US Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit attempting to block the deal, and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority may require Activision to divest some of the parts of its business before allowing the merger to proceed.
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