On Twitter, Phil Spencer, the CEO of Xbox Game Studios, announced that Call of Duty could come to Nintendo platforms in the near future. This will only happen if the $68 billion merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King is successful. It was confirmed by Spencer that Microsoft would commit to a ten-year deal, bringing Call of Duty to platforms like the Nintendo Switch, but little more information than that was confirmed.
Furthermore, Spencer stated that Call of Duty would continue to be offered on the Steam launcher on PC platforms. There’s quite some time before the acquisition merger is set to close, as it isn’t expected to reach its final stages until mid-2023.
‘Bringing More Games to More People’
Could Modern Warfare II come to Nintendo Switch?
For Nintendo, Call of Duty has been a forgotten franchise for almost a decade. It was in 2013 that the series last made an appearance on a Nintendo platform, with Call of Duty: Ghosts releasing on the Nintendo Wii U. Before that, Black Ops II also launched on the platform, but that was it – the entirety of the relationship between Call of Duty and Nintendo, summed up.
Now, following a promise made by the most senior member of staff of Xbox Game Studios, it seems that all that could be set to change:
‘Microsoft has entered into 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—however they choose to play.’
There’s no indication as to how Call of Duty will be brought to Nintendo consoles, but one suggestion doing the rounds is that it could be a cloud-based service. At present, it can be said that modern Call of Duty games are simply ‘too good’ to be ported to the likes of the Nintendo Switch, but it’s not as though that hasn’t been done before.
For instance, the likes of The Witcher 3, Outer Worlds, Skyrim, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy, and various Assassin’s Creed titles have made their way to the platform. Typically, they’ll just be downscaled to be considered compatible with the Switch’s hardware, but ultimately, the experience offered is still just as good.
In 2023, Call of Duty Warzone Mobile will be released, and that’s a perfect example of how a massive, open-world Call of Duty environment can be ported to a handheld system. If it can be done for mobile devices, it can be done for the Nintendo Switch. This could further improve the Call of Duty crossplay features as well, as most cross-platform games launched on Switch link seamlessly with other, more ‘mainstream’ platforms.
