Xbox: Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo announce 10-year deal for ‘Call of Duty’ games

Microsoft’s gaming division Xbox has announced that it has signed a 10-year deal with Nintendo that will bring Call of Duty (COD) games on the latter’s console. Brad Smith, president and vice chairman of Microsoft, delved out the information about the pact on Twitter.
“We’ve now signed a binding 10-year contract to bring Xbox games to Nintendo’s 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,” said Smith, who will be leading an 18-member delegation to save Microsoft-Activision Blizzard’s (approx,) $69 billion deal.

This marks the return of COD to Nintendo consoles after a decade-long hiatus. The last game in the first-person shooter series to come out for the Japanese gaming giant’s hardware was COD Ghosts. It was released for the Nintendo Wii U, alongside other platforms, on November 5, 2013.
What the Microsoft-Nintendo deal means
In his announcement, Smith shared an image that gave a brief overview of what the Microsoft-Nintendo deal will entail. One of the first things mentioned is that Call of Duty games will launch on Nintendo consoles the same day as they do on Xbox.

Moreover, the Nintendo port will be the full game and will have no content missing when compared to the Xbox port. Essentially, the console company has confirmed that there will not be any platform-exclusive goodies for COD players on Xbox Series X/S. The Xbox parent has emphasised that this approach will allow Nintendo users to “experience Call of Duty just as Xbox and PlayStation gamers enjoy Call of Duty.”

All-in for multi-platform Call of Duty games
Additionally, the company asserted its strategy to release content on as many platforms as available. The announcement said, “We are committed to providing long term equal access to Call of Duty to other gaming platforms, bringing more choice to more players and more competition to the gaming market.” This has been the stance of Microsoft for a long time since it negotiated a buyout deal for COD-owner Activision.