Microsoft is having a bit of an uphill battle to buy Activision Blizzard. Even though some countries and organizations have given their approval, the CMA of the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have yet to rule (among other entities), which has been the last be willing to block the purchase.
There is real concern surrounding this purchase, especially for the ‘Call of Duty franchise. This is the argument against what Sony is using, but Microsoft, they have already put its cards on the table: they have promised to bring ‘Call of Duty’ to PlayStation consoles as long as PlayStation consoles continue to exist.
And now, in a somewhat bizarre move, Phil Spencer has just pledged via Twitter to bring the shooter franchise to Nintendo for ten years.
‘Call of Duty on Nintendo Switch?
Phil Spencer has not given too many details about this commitment. He talks about Nintendo, but at no time does he explicitly mention Nintendo Switch (although it is obvious). The full statement reads as follows:
“Microsoft has made a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo following the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King. Microsoft is committed to helping bring more games to more people, no matter how they choose to play.”
Beyond the debate about to what extent it is feasible for an annual installment of ‘Call of DDutyto be launched on Nintendo’s laptop, which has been on the market since 2017 with hardware that, today, begins to ask forana updates (although the cloud will always remain), the interesting thing about this tweet is the background readin.
With this tweet, Phil Spencer, and therefore Xbox, publicly commit not to close the ‘Call of DDutyfranchise to the Microsoft ecosystem. It is a way of saying to the regulators “see if there are no reasons to worry about this acquisition that, if approved, we are not only going to continue releasing ‘Call of DDutyon the Sony console but, in addition, we are going to bring to the Nintendo console”. It is not the only statement that the executive has given on his Twitter account. In a second twee , Spencer said that “I’m also pleased to confirm that Microsoft is committed to continuing to offer ‘Call of DDutyon Steam simultaneously to Xbox after closing the merger with Activision Blizzard King.” Same as before, but on PC.
It is a declaration of intent. It will be necessary to see what it translates into when the time comes, but the reality is that, beyond being a weighty argument to be taken into account by the regulators, it is more a defense against Sony and its great attack: the possible exclusivity of the franchises. from Activision Blizzard upon approval of the purchase.
Out of curiosity, there hasn’t been a ‘Call of Duty on Nintendo since ‘Call of Duty: Ghost’ on Wii U. This one was released in 2013, so it’s going to be ten years soon. Be that as it may, what is clear is that the purchase of Activision Blizzard is a bit stuck and Microsoft is willing to do everything possible to make it happen.
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