Brad Smith, Microsoft’s current vice chairman and president, has stated in an official post that the world-renowned technology business has inked a formal 10-year legal arrangement with Japanese gaming behemoth Nintendo.
According to the release, the goal of this partnership is to “deliver Call of Duty to Nintendo gamers on the same day as Xbox with complete feature and content parity.” They went on to say that they are dedicated to long-term equitable access to CoD on other platforms, as well as more competition in the game sector. The final remark in especially sticks out because it appears to be a subtle dig at the ongoing Activision conflict between Xbox and PlayStation.
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. pic.twitter.com/JmO0hzw1BO— Brad Smith (@BradSmi) February 21, 2023
This arrangement was first announced by Microsoft Head of Xbox Phil Spencer in December 2022, therefore the delayed signing comes as a surprise to many who have been following this agreement. Now that it has received full support, Nintendo players can anticipate future Call of Duty titles to be released on their favorite console alongside Xbox systems.
Many gamers, though, remain suspicious about Nintendo systems’ ability to handle a CoD installment’s dynamic action and great graphics output. FPS dips and performance concerns have long been prevalent issues on other platforms, so the Switch’s comparably less powerful hardware will undoubtedly struggle and suffer the same challenges.
It’s worth mentioning, though, that because this is a ten-year agreement, Nintendo may someday offer a far more complex machine capable of handling graphically intricate games. Hopefully, this happens since playing Modern Warfare on the Switch does not sound like a pleasant time for anybody involved.