WIth how big of an IPCall of Dutyis, it is no wonder that the platform availability of any of the franchise’s releases is a huge point of contention and interest. In recent years, the series has settled down into offering availability on the latest Xbox, Playstation, and PC hardware, with the likes of Nintendo falling to the wayside in terms of collaboration with the mega first-person shooter IP.
However, that could potentially change with the news that Microsoft has pledged to bring theCall of Dutyfranchise to Nintendo consoles for up to a decade, should its acquisition ofCoDpublisher Activision Blizzard be legally made official. While this may outwardly seem like a massive announcement for the IP, it is important to note at this stage of the deal that this news may only be serving as a mere caveat to some of the legalities surrounding the acquisition.
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Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Acquisition
Microsoft shocked the gaming industry back in January when it began the process ofacquiring the hugely influential Activision Blizzard for a record-breaking $68.7 billion. In what appears to be an extremely bold expansion of Microsoft and Xbox’s reach, the Activision Blizzard deal would see Microsoft hold ownership of some seriously impressive IPs. The likes ofOverwatch,Warcraft,Starcraft, andDiabloall fall under the Activision Blizzard name, withCall of Dutyundoubtedly being the crown jewel.
Given the huge implications of Microsoft owning such a powerful publisher, the acquisition faced heavy amounts of scrutiny and criticism from within the industry that has persisted to this day. Predictably, a lot of this criticism has come from Microsoft’s direct competitors within the console space, withPlayStation in particular being extremely vocal in its disapprovalof the potential deal.
Discourse surrounding the possibility of the deal falling through recently reached a fever pitch with the news that theFederal Trade Commission is set to take legal action against Microsoftin order to prevent its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, citing how the deal could be harmful to industry competition. In the days prior to these developments, Microsoft surprisingly announced its intentions to bringCall of Dutyback to Nintendo hardware for the next ten years, the timing of which has led many to believe this announcement was tied to the legal scrutiny of the deal.
The Legal Aspects of Call of Duty and Nintendo
The primary concerns surrounding Microsoft’s Activision deal is that Microsoft could begin throttling the platform availability of the franchise outside of Xbox, effectively monopolizing one of the most lucrative IPs in the entire gaming industry. Microsoft has continually denied these allegations, and even offered Sony aten-yearCall of Dutyavailability deal for PlayStation, although the offer was reportedly denied.
To better leverage itself in the eyes of scrutinizing organizations such as the FTC, it appears that Microsoft subsequently extended this offer to other leading platforms within the industry, offering ten-year deals forCoDto both Steam and Nintendo. While these deals were likely offered in good faith, many have pointed out howCall of Dutyhas always been available on PC, and how Nintendo is not realistically competing forconsole market share in the same way as Xbox and PlayStation.
WhileCall of Dutyand Nintendo do have a shared history, the increased scale of recent franchise installments perhaps makes them impractical to run on current Nintendo hardware, at least prior to the launch of the rumored Switch 2. In this way, it remains that PlayStation is the biggest hurdle for Microsoft’s Activision deal, due to PS’s closely comparable market share to Xbox. WhileCall of Dutyon Nintendo is a fun prospect, the offer has likely been made primarily to legally posture around scrutiny from organizations like the FTC, as opposed to purely coming from a place of industrial inclusivity.
