Microsoft Announces Signed Deal to Bring CALL OF DUTY to Nintendo for 10 Years and Why That's a Problem
In case you missed it, Microsoft is working on acquiring Activision Blizzard. As the process is rolling, Phil Spencer mentioned last month that Microsoft was going to enter a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty games to Nintendo hardware. Spencer even said that Call of Duty would be launched on Steam at the same time as Xbox.
Of course, these deals can’t be 100% official until the merger is finalized, but that’s not stopping anyone. In fact, President of Microsoft Brad Smith more recently shared that a deal has been signed with Nintendo so that Xbox games and Activision titles like Call of Duty” and Call of Duty specifically will be available to Nintendo gamers on the same day as Xbox for 10 years. This is exciting for Call of Duty fans as it has been about 10 years since the last time a title in the franchise was on a Nintendo platform.
This brings me to be the party pooper of the situation. This deal reeks of smokescreen. Right now the United States and EU are fighting back against the merger concerned about a monopoly forming. After all, Microsoft acquired Bethesda and has since announced that big titles like Starfield and Redfall will be exclusive to Microsoft platforms. Microsoft is starting to feel a lot like the Disney of the video games industry. By making these deals with companies like Nintendo saying that for the next several years titles are guaranteed a release on other platforms, it strengthens their case to get the merger to go through. In the short run, they have to share, but once these contracts are up, they get infinitely more powerful. They could still choose to share, but the terms may become much more one-sided.
My thoughts are that the merger should not go through. Microsoft is getting a bit too powerful in my opinion. I don’t want a Disney in the world of video games.