Microsoft’s recent announcement that it intends to put Call Of Duty games on Nintendo consoles for the next 10 years it came as a surprise to many. After all, the best-selling shooter franchise has yet to appear on Nintendo Switch, even though that console has held a large chunk of the market for years.
Microsoft has made a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to @Nintendo after the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King. Microsoft is committed to helping bring more games to more people, however they choose to play. @ATVI_AB
—Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) December 7, 2022
However, the truth is that despite Nintendo’s reputation as a more “kid-friendly” publisher, several COD games have appeared on their consoles in the past. In fact, it was only in the last decade that the Tokyo gaming giant got rid of the famous series entirely, and we can’t help but wonder if that will change anytime soon.
Early Call Of Duty fans may remember the days of console-exclusive spin-offs like Best time Y big red in the mid-2000s, it came out for the GameCube, PS2, and Xbox. In fact, the first COD game was exclusive to PC, which limited its appeal. That would change in subsequent years, of course.
With the jump to the next generation of consoles, the technical gap between the Nintendo Wii and its competitors grew significantly. That didn’t stop Activision from releasing a wide variety of COD games on the console, including call of duty 4 modern warfare, World at war, covert operationsY Modern Warfare 3.
The Wii had such a massive install base that these entries were considered quite important at the time. They lacked the technical bells and whistles of its 360 and PS3 incarnations, but allowed you to use the Wiimote’s aiming capabilities instead of a traditional dual-stick setup. And, believe it or not, some of these same entries also appeared on the DS, albeit in a much different guise.
Nintendo’s break with Call Of Duty really started to emerge during the Wii U era, where Activision Blizzard released both Black Ops 2 Y ghosts in the console less than successful. The box’s lack of graphical power and slow sales made it a lower priority for third-party developers, ultimately leading Activision Blizzard to reject the controversial 2014 release. advanced warfare on the new console.
This was described as a “business decision” by the publisher at the time. However, it’s important to note that many big publishers were refusing to port their big games to the Wii U, like 2014’s Assassin’s Creed Unity. COD was simply part of this larger trend.
Since then, we’ve yet to see a Call Of Duty game on a Nintendo console, despite the Switch’s continued strong sales. It’s unclear why exactly this is the case, as there are plenty of shooters out there on the platform, including Apex Legends, Overwatch, and fatality 2016. Given the Switch’s hardware limitations, you have to wonder how many people would choose to play the latest COD if given other options. However, we do know that there are enough Switches in the world to justify an adaptation of the most popular shooters on the planet. call of duty: war zone 2.0 is currently one of the biggest games out there, so it definitely fits that bill.
Whether or not Call Of Duty will take this opportunity to return to Nintendo consoles anytime soon remains to be seen. Perhaps Activision Blizzard will wait for the inevitable Switch 2 to follow that path. Either way, it’s clear that microsoft is interested in the possibility.
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