Microsoft made its ten-year Call of Duty deal with Nintendo official and "legally-binding" earlier this week and it seems as if the tech giant isn't lacking in confidence about how well future installments in Activision Blizzard's marquee shooter will be performing on a historically weaker platform.
Microsoft president Brad Smith boldly claimed Call of Duty will "work exactly the way people would expect" when it comes out on Nintendo platforms and on Nvidia GeForce Now.
After the GameCube, Nintendo eschewed graphical performance over portability, and to excellent effect. The DS, 3DS, and Wii all sold better than the GameCube by a much margin. The only one that didn't was the Wii U, which ironically was the last Nintendo console to get a Call of Duty game with the release of Call of Duty: Ghosts in 2013. This means that a Switch port of any Call of Duty game since hasn't happened and there's a good reason for that.
The Switch is a laughably weaker console compared to its contemporaries, the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. Even if this is true, some developers have found a way to make their demanding games work on the hybrid platform. Case in point, the Switch port of Hogwarts Legacy is coming later this year.
But, while Nintendo and Microsoft could probably come up with a way to bring any recent Call of Duty entry to the Switch, it's a fruitless venture. Other platforms will hold a significant performance advantage over Switch players if a Call of Duty port happens.
With that said, we're hopeful that new Nintendo hardware will change this.
Unfortunately, Smith couldn't quite confirm if and when the new Call of Duty deal with Nintendo will take place. As per the most recent rumors, next year's Call of Duty entry is still coming to the PS4 and Xbox One. So, unless Nintendo's incoming console is weaker than both last-gen home gaming consoles, Microsoft probably expects at least two years to find a way to make Call of Duty work as well on whatever the Switch's successor is called as it would on the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X.
Speaking of Call of Duty, a recent report reveals that Sledgehammer Games' entry this year will continue Modern Warfare 2, which is in line with previous rumors that it originally started life as a premium DLC for the Infinity Ward title.
