Head Of Xbox Commits To Call Of Duty On Steam And Nintendo

Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, has officially confirmed a ten-year commitment to bring Call of Duty games to Nintendo and Steam after the Microsoft acquisition of Activision-Blizzard-King goes through. The announcement did not include a commitment to Sony, but as Microsoft has repeatedly promised Sony that the franchise would continue on PlayStation consoles, the commitment to bring the franchise to its rival’s platform is likely considered obvious at this point.

 

This announcement was made by Phil Spencer in two tweets, one of which he stated the commitment to Nintendo and the other stated the commitment to bring the franchise to Steam for the foreseeable future. However, there have been a few people in the comments of those tweets mocking Sony for not being happy about the ten-year commitment, but those people do not seem to grasp the kind of issue that this actually is for PlayStation.

Call of Duty has been a mainstay on every single platform since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare launched the franchise into intense popularity in 2007. The games have been around for ages, and they are major draws for millions of players. These games can make or break a platform, and while a ten-year assurance to bring the games to PlayStation may seem like a long time, it really isn’t in the grand scheme of things. Once those ten years are done, Microsoft will likely make those games exclusively available on the Xbox and Microsoft Store. This should explain why Sony is so adamant that this is a problem for them.

However, the commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo consoles is an interesting one seeing as 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts was the last mainstream entry to head to a Nintendo console, and that was for the Wii U. This could indicate a renewed interest in bringing the games to Nintendo, or it could be a way of trying to pacify the other large companies that may want to sell Call of Duty on their consoles.

Either way, this ten-year commitment appears to be here to stay, but it’s good to remember that ten years isn’t forever, and Call of Duty will probably wind up as an exclusive Xbox property once those ten years are up. 
 

Justin van Huyssteen (@LC_Lupus)
Senior Editor, NoobFeed