The president of MicrosoftBrad Smith announced in a Twitter post that the company has officially signed a agreement with Nintendoin which he undertakes to publish games in the series Call of Duty su Switch e le prossime console of the big N simultaneously with the other platforms, should the acquisition of Activision Blizzard materialize.
Previously it was Microsoft itself that confirmed the existence of such an agreement, but the Kyoto company’s response had not been disclosed. Well apparently so now Nintendo has accepted the proposal.
“Microsoft and Nintendo have now negotiated and signed a 10-year binding legal agreement to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo gamers – same day as Xbox platforms, with full functionality and content parity – so they can experience Call of Duty just like Xbox and PlayStation gamers.”, reads the press release from Microsoft.
“We are committed to providing long-term equal access to Call of Duty to other gaming platforms as well, giving more choices to more players and more competition in the gaming market.”
“We have now signed a binding 10-year contract to bring Xbox games to Nintendo gamers. This is just part of our commitment to bring Xbox games and Activision titles like Call of Duty to more players on more platforms,” the message from the Microsoft president Brad Smith.
As we know Microsoft has also proposed a similar agreement to Valve (owner of Steam) and Sony PlayStation, which as you probably know is strongly against the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, given that Call of Duty is a blockbuster series on PS5 and PS4 .
In this regard, Jim Ryan, the CEO of SIE, at the end of last year had declared that the agreement proposed by Microsoft to Nintendo was just smoke and mirrors, that is, a way to divert attention from the critical issues that emerged from the acquisition of Activision blizzards.
The news comes with particularly interesting timing, given that today Microsoft will be in a hearing with the European Commission to defend the maneuver.