Xbox’s “Binding Contract” With Nintendo Provides “Call of Duty” for 10 Years


Microsoft and Nintendo have agreed to make Call of Duty available on their platforms.

On Tuesday, Microsoft president Brad Smith tweeted that a 10-year partnership had been inked to deliver Xbox games to Nintendo’s gamers.

The agreement guarantees that Nintendo gamers will get access to the most recent Call of Duty titles “on the same day as Xbox, with feature and content parity.” The business reached a similar agreement with Sony to grant PlayStation fans access to the iconic series.

With Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the publisher of the Call of Duty video game franchise, competitors such as Sony have expressed concern that the merger may reduce competition in the console industry.

Microsoft is entering into agreements that will keep Call of Duty available on various systems for at least the ensuing ten years in an apparent effort to soothe these concerns and secure regulatory approval for the acquisition.