Microsoft wants Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard titles to make their way to Nintendo consoles like the Switch.
Putting current Activision Blizzard games on as many systems as possible is a goal Microsoft wants to achieve after its monumental takeover goes through, company president Brad Smith told CNBC.
He said: “One of the things we’re being very clear about as we move forward with the regulatory review of this acquisition is that great titles like Call of Duty from Activision Blizzard today will continue to be available on the Sony PlayStation.
“We’d like to bring it to Nintendo devices. We’d like to bring the other popular titles that Activision Blizzard has and ensure that they continue to be available on PlayStation [and] that they become available on Nintendo.”
Call of Duty games have appeared on Nintendo consoles before, but not with huge regularity – the last CoD game to appear on a Nintendo platform was Call of Duty: Ghosts in 2013.
Many have pointed to the company’s takeover of Bethesda, and the announcement that one of its most-anticipated games would be Xbox-exclusive, as proof of Microsoft’s intent for Activision games. However, Smith cited a different example, saying that after the company bought Mojang in 2014, Minecraft actually extended its reach and became available in even more places.
“What we’ve done with that acquisition,” Smith explained,” I think, is a clear indicator of what we hope to do if we acquire Activision Blizzard. Namely, invest even more in innovation, bring it to more people, bring it to more platforms, make it even more useful, and hopefully delightful for the people who use it.”
Microsoft’s acquisition of Blizzard will reportedly be reviewed by the US Federal Trade Commission as it considers taking a more aggressive stance on Big Tech mergers, but CEO Satya Nadella doesn’t seem to believe the review will find issues.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently tweeted that he intends to honour all existing agreements between Activision and Sony. Yesterday, Microsoft went further, saying it had made a commitment that Activision Blizzard games would continue to head to PlayStation “beyond existing agreements”.
Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard – the company behind Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and more – shook the gaming industry. PlayStation followed shortly afterwards by purchasing Destiny developer Bungie. Nintendo will walk its own path, as always, recently commenting that it isn’t interested in acquiring other companies.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.
