The novel of the purchase of Microsoft and Activision does not seem to have an end. And it remains unclear whether regulators will finally give the green light to the purchase. Now, little to sympathize with the regulators again, Microsoft and Nintendo they have closed the deal that they announced some time ago to bring Call of Duty and other Activision games to the Japanese platform.
Although Call of Duty is not expected to come native to Nintendo in the short term, at least not the current versions, it can be a starting point in order to bring Microsoft’s cloud technology to Activision games. Especially after the massive leak last December for the Call of Duty plans in 2023 and 2024.
However, it seems that Microsoft continues to emphasize this aspect. Its President, by Brad Smith, tweeted Monday night that the deal, first announced in December, aims to “bring Xbox games and Activision titles like “Call of Duty” to more gamers on more platforms.”
The idea is that Call of Duty will be available to Nintendo players on the same day as Xbox players, “with full features and content parity,” according to the Microsoft statement. However, to this day it does not seem that the Switch is powerful enough to see Warzone “with full features”.
Microsoft still has to convince regulators, but especially Sony
And with an agreement involved, even everything seems to be a movement to convince the regulators. But in the end, the main stumbling block is not so much Microsoft’s intentions to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo, but to do it in the most important platform for the franchise: PlayStation.
The US Federal Trade Commission is trying to block the deal and Microsoft is facing the same situation in Europe, with a fierce fight before one of the continent’s most important regulators, the British CMA.
Either way, it’s great news for Nintendo gamers, but it seems that it will not be enough to clear the doubts of Sony, which today has a priority content agreement with Activision for Call of Duty, something they will not want to lose.
Also, the latest moves by Microsoft, to make games like Starfield exclusive to Xbox, when in its announcement they were multiplatform, it seems that it does not encourage a promising future in which Microsoft does not want to make Call of Duty exclusive, at least in content, for its platforms. At least the “premium” version of the game.
We will see if this movement is enough to convince the regulators. And, above all, to clear up the doubts of Sony.