Games meant for the Xbox will soon be playable on Nintendo consoles, too.
Microsoft recently signed a 10-year contract with Nintendo that would bring Call of Duty games to Nintendo consoles to prove that the former's acquisition of Activision Blizzard can benefit competition.
The California-based tech giant's president, Brad Smith, had reportedly faced EU antitrust regulators to convince them of the benefits of the company acquiring Activision.
Microsoft-Nintendo Contract Details
Smith mentioned in a recent tweet that Microsoft had signed a "binding" 10-year contract to bring Xbox games to Nintendo gamers as part of its commitment to bring Xbox games and Activision titles like the Call of Duty series, the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, and Sekiro to more players and platforms.
The message Smith tweeted details that Microsoft's deal with Nintendo guarantees that Xbox games and Call of Duty will be available to Nintendo players on the same day as Xbox with full feature and content parity so they can experience these games just as it and PlayStation games enjoy the popular video game series.
Microsoft added it is committed to giving long-term equal access to Call of Duty to other gaming platforms to bring more choice to more players and more competition to the gaming market.
Interestingly, Microsoft's deal with Nintendo was already engaging in talks to secure it in 2022. According to Kotaku, the companies sat down with each other in December 2022 to discuss the deal's terms, with Xbox boss Phil Spencer tweeting that Microsoft had "entered a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo" once the merger is complete.
What's more interesting is that the deal went ahead while the merger has yet to go through due to the worldwide antitrust investigations blocking it from doing so.
To that end, Microsoft could have added the last statement to help its anti-competitive case with the European Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority.
You may remember that these government agencies blocked Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard due to the deal hurting Microsoft's competitors in the video game industry and leaving them behind.
Will Microsoft's Deal With Nintendo Hurt Competition?
It's all well and good that Microsoft is willing to share Xbox and Activision Blizzard games with Nintendo without leaving any feature behind, but it may cause more harm than goodwill. Industry consolidation doesn't lead to more choice - a thought Microsoft is aware of by now with almost every regulator imaginable blocking its acquisition of Activision.
However, it should be noted that Microsoft also extended an olive branch to Sony, with it offering to let Call of Duty remain on the PlayStation for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony had ended.
Microsoft also offered Sony PlayStation Plus Rights to Call of Duty games in mid-December 2022, though the latter company has yet to accept the former's offer.
As such, it is up to Microsoft if it will honor the agreements and promises it made to Nintendo and Sony and to antitrust regulators to hold Microsoft to its world should they give the go-ahead.
