Microsoft signed a 10-year contract with Nintendo. Once it successfully acquires Activision Blizzard, the game “Call of Duty” series released by the company will also be transplanted for Switch players to play. The game content and experience will be compared to platforms such as Xbox and PlayStation. , in order to promote healthy competition in the game market, this contract has attracted doubts from all walks of life, including the belief that the hardware performance of the Nintendo Switch may not be sufficient to execute “Call of Duty”.
New documents released by the UK government reveal why Microsoft thinks the Nintendo Switch will be able to execute Call of Duty, and why Sony opposes the merger.
In 2022, Microsoft announced that it plans to buy the game company Activision Blizzard for 68.7 billion. This is the largest merger in Microsoft’s history, which has attracted the attention of the FTC of the United States, the European Union, and the British government, as well as opposition from Sony. In order to dispel doubts from all walks of life that mergers and acquisitions may lead to monopoly of the game market, Microsoft announced the open program store guidelines in February 2022, with the goal of promoting market competition.
And Microsoft announced this year that Xbox PC games will be available on GeForce NOW, enabling players to play games purchased in the Windows Store on Nvidia streaming services. At the same time, Xbox PC games sold on Steam or Epic game stores will also It will be streamed on the GeForce NOW platform.
Microsoft’s commitment to fair competition in the game market has extended to Nintendo’s Switch platform. After the merger, it will launch “Call of Duty” on the Switch platform. It is mentioned in Microsoft’s document to the UK Competition and Markets Authority, “Call of Duty: The game engine used by Warzone is mature enough to optimize a wide range of hardware devices. “Call of Duty: Warzone” can support PC hardware and GPUs from 2015.
Microsoft tried to say that “Call of Duty: Warzone” is a game that can be executed by both PC hardware and GPU in 2015, indicating that the Nintendo Switch, which was released in 2017, is bound to have the ability to execute “Call of Duty: Warzone”.
Microsoft pointed out that Activision Blizzard’s development team has already optimized game performance for different hardware in the past, and at the same time used Microsoft’s technology to port Apex Legends, DOOM Eternal, Fortnite and Crysis 3 to Switch. They are confident that Call of Duty : Warzone or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will work on Nintendo Switch.
In addition, Microsoft also disclosed in the document that they will continue the mobile game community established by Activision Blizzard, including “Call of Duty: Mobile” and “Call of Duty: Warzone” and “Diablo Immortal”, and expand the creation of the Xbox store. New mobile game distribution platform Xbox Mobile Platform.
Sony is still firmly opposed to Microsoft’s 10-year contract, and told the British Competition and Markets Authority that Microsoft must be prohibited from acquiring Activision Blizzard in order to eliminate the damage to the host and cloud, and worried Microsoft may release a PlayStation version of Call of Duty with bugs and glitches, causing players to lose faith in PlayStation and not play on the platform.