In a move that many of us didn’t see coming, Activision will be bringing the Call of Duty games to Nintendo Switch. A announcement by Microsoft revealed that the franchise will see a 10-year commitment on Nintendo systems, although no specific titles were listed.
Microsoft’s ongoing acquisition of Activision Blizzard has seen significant pushback from Sony. The move to bring CoD to Nintendo gamers is one method of ensuring that Microsoft doesn’t become a monopoly once the merger with Activision Blizzard is complete.
For even more goodwill, they also announced that these games will still get Steam releases, releasing alongside other PC and console versions. However, the move to Nintendo hardware is by far the most exciting part of the new announcement.
News on Call of Duty coming to Switch was broken by none other than Phil Spencer himself, making the announcement on Twitter. Spencer says that the company is committed to bringing these games to more players, though he didn’t say how they would bring these titles in.
Cloud versions are an obvious example and it might not be so bad this time. After all, most people play these games for multiplayer and that already requires a constant internet connection. Unfortunately, the Switch isn’t known for great internet connections but things can change.
We can also see the excellent Call of Duty Mobile getting ported to the Switch since the system is natural for mobile ports. Games like The Elder Scrolls: Blades run fine on the Switch and we think CoD Mobile could do just as well on it.
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The days of Nintendo not having M-rated games on their systems are pretty much dead, even if the company still leans towards family-friendly fun. But once you’ve had Bayonetta, Dark Souls, and DOOM on your system, Call of Duty makes a good amount of sense.