If the acquisition of Activision Blizzard goes through, Microsoft today announced that it has signed a deal with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo Switch. This deal will be valid for 10 years. Microsoft also announced that it will keep Call of Duty on Steam game store.
Microsoft will start the development next year once the deal is closed. In the future, when a Call of Duty game launches on PlayStation, Xbox and PC, it will also be available on Nintendo at the same time.
Even though Microsoft offered a similar deal to Sony, Sony rejected the deal since it doesn’t want Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard to happen. Microsoft expects that regulatory organizations around the world will consider its deals with Nintendo and Valve as a positive sign to approve the Activision Blizzard acquisition.
In an interview to Washington Post, Phil Spencer said the following regarding these deals:
“Maybe some aura gets put around our words that maybe they’re not genuine, that when you have a company like Nintendo or a company like Valve believing in the commitment and reaching agreement with Nintendo on something like this, we think it’s an important point to have out in the market.”