“10 years of Call of Duty on Nintendo if…”. Now ball to Sony

Microsoft has announced that it has entered into formal talks with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to the consoles of the Japanese house if the regulatory bodies were to give the green light to the acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. The Xbox owner had already informally revealed that she wanted to bring Call of Duty back to Nintendo platforms after a very long absence, but now – with a public move aimed at persuading the various antitrusts working on the practice of her good intentions – the discussions have been black on white. The ball is now in the hands of Sony, which has so far refused to compromise in an attempt to block the deal.

Call of Duty on Nintendo, word of Microsoft –

“Microsoft has entered into a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty up [piattaforme] Nintendo after the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King,” Redmond gaming boss Phil Spencer revealed on Twitter this morning. “Microsoft is committed to helping bring more games to more people – however they choose to play.” In a tweet immediately following, Spencer added that “I am also pleased to confirm that Microsoft is committed to continue offering Call of Duty on Steam simultaneously with Xbox after we close the merger with Activision Blizzard King”. All by tagging the parties involved, from Nintendo to Valve.

I’m also pleased to confirm that Microsoft has committed to continue to offer Call of Duty on @Steam simultaneously to Xbox after we have closed the merger with Activision Blizzard King. @ATVI_AB @ValveSoftware

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) December 7, 2022

“We trust” —

The answer of Gabe Newell, president of Valve and head of Steam, provided to Kotaku is interesting. “Microsoft offered and even sent us a draft agreement for a long-term commitment to Call of Duty, but it wasn’t necessary for us because a) we don’t believe in requiring partners to have an agreement that forces them to distribute games on Steam far future, b) Phil and the gaming team at Microsoft have always kept their word on what they told us they would do, so we trust their intentions, and c) we think Microsoft has every reason it needs to be on the platforms and devices where Call of Duty customers want to be.” So far, Sony’s words are of the opposite tenor, which pushed for a written agreement and first rejected a multi-year multi-game proposal, then a formal ten-year deal that was similarly put on its plate a few days ago. “From our point of view, it is clear that they are spending more time with regulators than they do with us to try to close this deal,” the Xbox boss bitterly replied in this regard.