Microsoft promises Call of Duty for Nintendo consoles in surprise 10-year deal
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Nintendo fans hoping that the ultra-popular Call of Duty series would eventually come to the Switch got an unexpected boost last night. That's when Microsoft's Xbox chief Phil Spencer announced that the company had reached "a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo following the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King." The announcement comes alongside a similar announcement promising to keep Call of Duty on Steam for the same period of time.
If the "10-year commitment" part of those announcements sounds familiar, it's probably because it's the same length of time Microsoft has reportedly formally offered to keep the Call of Duty franchise on PlayStation consoles. That followed a September offer to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for three additional years, which Sony called inadequate in public statements. But Spencer has gone much further in his public statements, saying in October that Microsoft would continue to ship a PlayStation Call of Duty "as long as there's a PlayStation out there to ship to."
The Nintendo announcement is significantly more surprising, though, considering that Call of Duty hasn't appeared on a Nintendo console since Call of Duty Ghosts hit the Wii U in 2013. That game came one year after Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 became a surprise launch title for the ill-fated console.