We reported last week that the long-running court case between Microsoft and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had finally come to a close, with judge Jaqueline Scott Corley denying the the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction, bringing an end to their efforts of blocking Microsoft’s monumental acquisition of Activision Blizzard. However, on July 13th, 2023, the FTC filed to appeal against judge Corley’s decision. That appeal has since been denied, though both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have chosen to extend the deadline of their deal’s closure by three months to October 18th, 2023. This extension will allow them time to secure the U.K’s approval.
In the 53-page document filed last Tuesday in support of Microsoft and denying the requested injunction, Judge Corley outlined the following:
“…Microsoft has committed in writing, in public, and in court to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for 10 years on parity with Xbox. It made an agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Switch. And it entered several agreements to for the first time bring Activision’s content to several cloud gaming services.”
Though she acknowledges that an acquisition of this caliber—arguably the largest in modern history—deserves scrutiny, Microsoft have done well to present themselves in a non anti-competitive light. Personally, I still question the deal as a whole, especially when considering Microsoft’s past in cheekily sniffing the scents of monopolization and appropriately facing anti-trust charges, but I’ll hold off on those thoughts for a future article. For now, let’s look into what titles from Activision Blizzard would make their way to Nintendo’s aging handheld if (or more likely when) this deal does indeed go through; and what the future might look like for the inevitable Switch successor.
Call of Duty, Call of Duty, & More Call of Duty
When it’s not trying to recruit gamers to join the U.S military, Call of Duty stands as one of gaming’s most successful IP’s, with Warzone alone bringing in over 25 million players globally and having a quarter of a million of them playing concurrently at any given time. Warzone is so popular in fact that over 1 million PlayStation 5 owners play nothing but the military shooter on their $500 console.
Though for as popular as the series has been for the past two decades, it’s refrained from showing up in any meaningful capacity on one of gaming’s biggest console-makers: Nintendo. A quick look through history shows that aside from a smattering of titles here and there, predominately in the earlier years of the ridiculously popular Wii, the series never found a solid footing within Nintendo’s lineup of both home and handheld consoles. It’s been nearly a decade since we saw a mainline Call of Duty show up on a Nintendo platform, with the last title being Call of Duty: Ghosts, which released on November of 2013 on arguably Nintendo’s worst home console, the Wii U.
Much of the mixed reviews and poor sales numbers could be chalked up to mediocre porting jobs, the lack of fan crossover between the franchise and the platforms, and Nintendo’s lack of infrastructure when it comes to online play; something that is so integral to the Call of Duty series and the thing that Nintendo still can’t seem to quite figure out to this day—seriously, a 12-digit friend code? No, thank you.
Nintendo has historically struggled to bring in the ‘hardcore’ gamers, and there’s nothing more ‘hardcore’ than Call of Duty (though, if you’re asking me, Kirby is pretty damn close). There’s always been this idea amongst the community that Nintendo is the ‘casual’ console. Ironic, because the same sentiment is also shared for those PlayStation 5 owners that play nothing but Warzone. But I get it, Nintendo spent the entire Wii and 3DS generation focusing on bringing in families and the elderly to their side of the market, and it worked.
Though, it seems things are a little different with the Switch. More companies have been willing to bring their games to the console. Games like Doom, Wolfenstein, and the Resident Evil series have all made it over the the platform with a fair amount of success. It’s become such a trend that I look at my Switch now as the ultimate console for ports of iconic franchises, most of which I doubt would’ve ever seen the light of day due to their ‘M’ rating on Nintendo’s previous platforms.
Seeing games like Black Ops, Modern Warfare, and even some of the classic Call of Duty’s come to the Switch would be a good thing for fans of the franchise. Though the Switch is fairly underpowered when compared to its competitors, it should be powerful enough to run all those titles from the past two generations of consoles. But would those titles come with their multiplayer modes intact? We all know the series’ primary draw has not been about their single-player campaigns since Activision decided to forgo telling stories of storming the beaches of Normandy. And even if they do come to the console with remastered visuals and all their multiplayer extras, it would be interesting to see how many would be wiling to crossover from other platforms, and how much it would attract existing Switch players.
Warzone, on the other hand, might be a little more of a task for the Switch to handle, though I’d imagine with some technical wizardry it could be done. It would be quite the feat to have Warzone be playable on the go; that in itself would be a worthy enough selling point for many players—myself included. Add in cross-play and cross-progression, and I can foresee the Switch being one of the most successful platforms for the already colossal game. Furthermore, the Switch successor is expected to release sometime next year if rumours are anything to go by; and with it hopefully coming fitted with a brand new processing chip can only bode well for bringing future Call of Duty titles without (hopefully) skimping on the technical aspects.
The Rest of Activision/Blizzard
When looking at the list of properties Microsoft could potentially own after this merger, I was surprised to see just how few new franchises would make for a notable addition to the Switch’s library. Crash Bandicoot and Spyro have already made their way to the console with their respective remastered collections, both of which were both commercially and critically successful with Crash doing particularly well on the Switch according to gameindustry.biz. Both Overwatch games are also available to play on Nintendo’s console, though they struggle to keep frame-rates steady and are marred with some technical issues according to online reviews; another example of a much needed refresh in processing power for the now six-year-old console. Still, it remains the only way for players to jump into the popular title portably.
Blizzard’s biggest IP is easily World of Warcraft. The MMOPRG has been exclusive to the PC platform since its release all the way back in 2004, but if Microsoft chose to bring the game to the Switch I can imagine it being a huge hit with players as Diablo – a title that shares some kinship with WoW – has done quite well on Nintendo’s system with its third entry into the franchise selling nearly a million copies according to VGChartz, though the recently released fourth installment has yet to make it over to the console as of writing.
Ports Galore & EA Sports FC 24
As a part of Nintendo’s June Direct, Metal Gear Solid: The Master Collection was unveiled to release on the console later this year. This will be the first time fans of Kojima’s iconic series would be able to play the first game since Konami jarringly removed it from the PlayStation store back in November 2021. Let’s just now hope Konami don’t butcher the port. Whether this bodes well for the upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater remake to come to the console I’m not sure, but at least we now have a way to play these games on (relatively) modern hardware.
It didn’t end there, though. Both the Batman: Arkham Trilogy and Suikoden I & II are coming to the Switch, with the latter being a proper remaster. It’s quite surprising that companies are still willing to churn out their legacy titles this late into the Nintendo Switch’s life cycle. Clearly sales numbers show that there’s an audience for almost any franchise, niche or otherwise, to have the ability to both revitalize interest in an IP as well as be successful commercially.
In a curious move, Nintendo have just announced that EA’s upcoming football game (soccer for our U.S readers), rebranded now as EA Sports FC 24 (rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?), will have its Switch version run on the Frostbite engine for the first time. Having previously relegated their Switch versions to essentially being reskins of FIFA 19, this makes the Switch version of FC 24 be in full parity with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Beyond that, EA is looking to bring previously nixed modes like ‘Ultimate Team’ be readily available on day one. After years of neglecting the Switch (but still charging full price for its games), this is a positive change for the franchise moving forward, though it is curious that EA have decided to play nice with the Switch this late in the game. Whether the Switch is even capable of handing the Frostbite engine properly is yet to be seen, but this is a positive piece of news nonetheless.
It seems the Switch still has some legs left, with a slew of notable third and first party titles scheduled to release for the foreseeable future. The console is still selling well, and until Nintendo see a dip in its numbers we won’t be seeing a successor; so we best strap in for more remasters and ports, which frankly I’m fine with as long as they’re done faithfully—I just hope the Mass Effect series can make their way over so that I can romance Garrus on the go.
