Microsoft has signed a deal with Nintendo and Valve to bring Call of Duty to Switch and Steam for 10 years.
Microsoft’s major communication campaign continues to have its takeover of Activision-Blizzard approved by the authorities. Earlier this week, Microsoft published an op-ed by Brad Smith in the Washington Post referring to PlayStation as just a DVD rental company in the era of Netflix. At the same time, the CWA, the first American union in video games, published an editorial in the media The Hill to support the takeover and announce a historic example with Bethesda.
Now it’s about call of duty that Microsoft wants to reassure the authorities with very concrete agreements.
A promise to read carefully
It’s Phil Spencer’s turn to take the floor to defend the case. The boss of Microsoft Gaming had withdrawn a little on the subject, the scope of the takeover being hierarchically at the level of the management of Microsoft now.
I’m also pleased to confirm that Microsoft has committed to continue to offer Call of Duty on @Steam simultaneously to Xbox after we have closed the merger with Activision Blizzard King. @ATVI_AB @ValveSoftware
—Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) December 7, 2022
On Twitter, he confirmed the signing of an important agreement with Valve and Nintendo. If you read the wording of the tweets carefully, the two contracts are different.
Concerning Nintendo, it is a question of bringing the Call of Duty license for 10 years on Nintendo platforms. We obviously think of the Switch, but with such a long period, we must also have in mind the next console from the manufacturer. By contrast, in the second tweet, Phil Spencer indicates that Xbox is committed to releasing Call of Duty games simultaneously on Xbox and Steam.
Of course, all this will only happen if Microsoft can take control of Activision-Blizzard, and therefore if the authorities accept the takeover.
Call of Duty is coming to Switch, but how?
We therefore understand that in the case of Nintendo, it is not necessarily a simultaneous release with Xbox and Steam. In fact, in this tweet, Microsoft doesn’t even commit to releasing the same games call of duty than on other platforms.
Obviously, the contract signed with Nintendo is more detailed than the transcript in a tweet from Phil Spencer. But it is also a public commitment where each word has its importance. In the same vein, if he undertakes to offer call of duty at Nintendo for 10 years, he does not commit to offering every episode.
For example, marketing the game Call of Duty Mobile on Nintendo Switch and keep it updated for the next 10 years would correspond to the agreement as formulated by the tweet. If we imagine the main episodes of the franchise arriving on Switch, it could be done thanks to the cloud. More and more cross-platform games rely on this solution for the Switch version.
For Microsoft, we can think that this is an important compromise to obtain the agreement of the authorities. In fact, since the start of the takeover project, Microsoft has often used an analogy between call of duty and Minecraft in its strategy.
A win-win situation for the tech giant: it is massively increasing its revenue with the likely success on Switch while promoting its Game Pass on its own platforms. This agreement ultimately forced him above all to obtain a new source of income for a flagship license. We have already seen worse as a constraint.
Cornered PlayStation
The signing of this agreement with Nintendo and Valve is above all a political gesture to corner Sony.
Our acquisition will bring Call of Duty to more gamers and more platforms than ever before. That’s good for competition and good for consumers. Thank you @Nintendo. Any day @Sony wants to sit down and talk, we’ll be happy to hammer out a 10-year deal for PlayStation as well. https://t.co/m1IQxdeo6n
—Brad Smith (@BradSmi) December 7, 2022
The PlayStation manufacturer can no longer publicly fear the idea of an Xbox exclusivity for call of duty which could endanger its gaming platform. With this reversal, Microsoft wants to make Sony look like the bad student of the industry: in a position of strength, but which refuses to evolve into a form of Netflix of video games. Sony would dishonestly oppose the takeover to protect its position.
As stated several times publicly, Microsoft offered the same deal to Sony.
Microsoft’s offered a similar deal to Sony but they haven’t accepted. @XboxP3 isn’t mincing words about that: “From where we sit, it’s clear they’re spending more time with the regulators than they are with us to try and get this deal done,” he said in an interview
—Dina Bass (@dinabass) December 7, 2022
In an interview with Bloomberg, Phil Spencer goes further without mincing words with regard to PlayStation.
From our perspective, it’s clear that they’re spending more time with the regulators than with us trying to get this deal done.
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