It has been almost a decade since a full Call of Duty experience was released on a Nintendo platform. In 2013, Call of Duty: Ghosts launched on the Wii U, and after a miserable reception, the franchise never returned. By today, there still hasn’t been another Call of Duty title within the Nintendo ecosystem.
That could be set to change very soon.
On Twitter, Phil Spencer took to the airwaves to claim that Microsoft would enter into a ten-year deal to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo platforms, should the Activision Blizzard King x Microsoft acquisition-merger go ahead as planned.
Would Call of Duty Work on Nintendo Platforms?
For years, increasingly bigger and bolder games have been finding their way to the Nintendo Switch platform, such as The Witcher 3, Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed, and even Grand Theft Auto. As these franchises land on the system, it has opened doors for the Nintendo ecosystem to be more ‘accepting’ of ‘adult games’.
In his Tweet, Phil Spencer spoke of a grand plan to introduce Call of Duty to as many gamers as possible:
Microsoft has entered into a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to @Nintendo following the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King. Microsoft is commited to helping bring more games to more people – however they choose to play.
Phil Spencer (on Twitter)
At first, this may seem like a relatively bizarre pledge, as typically, first-person shooter franchises don’t fare too well on a) Nintendo platforms, and b) handheld devices. There are also technical limitations, as modern-day Call of Duty releases tend to be very demanding, boasting huge install sizes and requiring some high-end hardware to run smoothly.
Of course, as we’ve just mentioned, we’ve seen some fairly sizeable franchises ported to the Nintendo Switch platform, and they’re often just downscaled so they can run a little better on the Switch’s hardware.
There could be the potential to introduce a cloud-based system, with users streaming Call of Duty, giving them the ability to play it at a higher resolution, admittedly while being hindered by the need to constantly stream the game.
In 2023, Call of Duty Warzone Mobile will be released globally, and that’s a fantastic example of a massive, open-world Call of Duty map being ported to a mobile platform. If it can be done for mobile devices, there’s no real reason why it couldn’t necessarily be done for the Nintendo Switch.
If you’re interested in more Call of Duty news, check out our recent report regarding a ten-year deal between Microsoft and Sony.
