Microsoft says it reached a 10-year deal to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo

Fans of the popular “Call of Duty” shooter may soon have more options for where they can play it.

Microsoft said it closed a 10-year deal to bring the 19-year-old game franchise to Nintendo after its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which makes the game, was completed. The deal is pending regulatory approval.

The news comes a day after Microsoft chairman Brad Smith wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the Redmond, Wash.-based company offered “Call of Duty” a 10-year contract to work with Microsoft. Sony’s PlayStation console. Microsoft reportedly made another offer earlier this year. Sony did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deal with Nintendo is Microsoft’s latest attempt to ease concerns that acquiring the gaming giant could hurt competition in the industry.

Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard in January in a deal valued at nearly $70 billion, which would be one of the biggest ever in the technology industry. The move could boost Microsoft’s position in the gaming industry, as its Xbox console lags behind Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.

Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer announced the commitment to Nintendo in a tweet and said it will continue to offer “Call of Duty” on the Steam gaming platform if the deal goes through. “Microsoft is committed to helping bring more games to more people – regardless of how they choose to play,” he said.

The company’s decision to bring “Call of Duty” to Nintendo comes as Microsoft’s deal with Activision faces regulatory scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic. The US Federal Trade Commission plans to sue Microsoft to block the Activision acquisition.

But Smith this week defended the strategy, saying blocking the deal would be “a big mistake”.

“It would hurt competition, consumers and thousands of game developers,” he wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

He argued that Microsoft faces “enormous challenges” in the gaming industry, and the potential acquisition of Activision Blizzard could allow Microsoft to compete with these companies “through innovation that would benefit consumers”.

Microsoft also wants to offer customers the option of subscribing to a cloud gaming service that lets you stream a variety of games across multiple devices for a “reasonable” fee, Smith said. The company is open to providing the same commitment to other platforms, which would be legally enforceable by US, UK and EU regulators.

According to Eric Abbruzzese, an analyst at ABI Research, the effort to open access to its games shows that Microsoft is “struggling” to overcome regulatory hurdles.

“If the offer helps finalize the deal, then it’s a big win that goes unnoticed with ‘Call of Duty’ in the headlines,” he said. “But offering a single entity for a limited time would not be sufficient to circumvent the regulation as it is temporary and narrow in scope.”

“Call of Duty” is arguably the most popular game title today, so the impact for consumers is remarkable. In 2020, the game surpassed 250 million downloads worldwide, according to data from SensorTower, an analytics company that tracks app downloads.

“Nintendo isn’t a high priority for ‘Call of Duty’, all things considered – it’s done perfectly fine without being at Nintendo recently,” added Abbruzzese. “Keeping it on Steam for the PC market is significant, and obviously if this offer convinces Sony to take it as well, that’s huge.”