Nintendo had signed a 10-year deal with Microsoft in February to receive Call of Duty in the future. That deal assumes the Microsoft acquisition goes through, but it does highlight how the series has evaded Nintendo consoles for more than a whole generation. And now Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has expressed regret in that decade-long absence.
Kotick said he “made a bad judgment”
According to his appearance in the Federal Trade Commission trial concerning Activision and Microsoft, Kotick said he “made a bad judgment” about not putting Call of Duty on the Switch. He even stated that he thought Nintendo was doing too much with the Switch and that it wouldn’t work out.
“It’s probably the second biggest video game system of all time,” said Kotick.
As of May 2023, Nintendo has sold over 125 million Switch consoles.
Kotick also spoke about Nintendo elsewhere in the trial, too. He talked about future Nintendo hardware, noting that Activision would have to wait until the hardware specs came out and that the company didn’t have “present plans to [put Call of Duty on a future Nintendo system].” However, he also said that Activision will “will likely make a Call of Duty game for a new Nintendo console” and that it would be something Activision would consider.
Kotick explained that not having enough resources or seeing “something wrong with the specifications” as reasons to potentially not make Call of Duty on the next Nintendo platform. But he reiterated that porting Call of Duty to the Switch was still something Activision would consider.
“I think we would consider it and if it was something where we could make a great game we’d likely consider it,” said Kotick.
Microsoft’s 10-year deal to put Call of Duty on the Switch is not, obviously, from Activision since the two are currently separate entities, which explains the different stances. Call of Duty has also not been on a Nintendo platform since 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts, which launched on the Wii U.
