Call of Duty on Switch? Microsoft wants the franchise to be “the new Minecraft”

Microsoft has revealed its plans regarding the future of the Call of Duty series and other Activision Blizzard franchises on platforms other than Xbox. In an interview with CNBC, last Wednesday (9), the president of the company, Brad Smith, not only confirmed that he will keep the games on PlayStation, but also said he wants to bring the shooters to the Nintendo Switch. For him, CoD could be the “new Minecraft”.

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In the eyes of Microsoft, the acquisition of Activision Blizzard is very similar to the purchase of Mojang — carried out in 2014 for US$ 2,5 billion. Despite being part of Xbox Game Studios, Mojang continues to release Minecraft games for other platforms, including the latest 2020's Minecraft Dungeons.

With this strategy, Microsoft is able to use the Minecraft series to gradually attract players from other consoles to the Xbox ecosystem. In the CNBC interview, when commenting on the Mojang acquisition, Smith said the following:

“This merger [with Mojang], in my opinion, is a clear indicator of what we hope to do if we acquire Activision Blizzard. Invest even more in innovations, get them to more people, get them to more platforms, and make them even more useful and enjoyable for the people who use them.”

Brad Smith, President of Microsoft.

The same thing is likely to happen with the Activision Blizzard franchises. Call of Duty, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Diablo and more hit series will continue to be released on multiple platforms at the same time. Thus, Microsoft is able to show all players the potential of the company to take good care of their properties.

The logic is simple: Microsoft wants gamers to conclude that if the company can increase the quality of cross-platform games, then the result must be even better in exclusives. So it makes sense to keep Activision Blizzard's giant franchises in multiple places besides Xbox.

Call of Duty may even come to Switch

We already knew that upcoming Call of Duty games would keep coming out for PS4 and PS5. However, Smith stated that he has plans to bring both the shooter franchise and other Activision Blizzard games even to the Nintendo Switch.

“We would like to bring [Call of Duty] to Nintendo devices. We'd like to bring in the other popular titles that Activision Blizzard has and make sure they remain available on PlayStation, [and] become available for Nintendo."

Brad Smith, President of Microsoft.

Merger between the companies still needs to be approved

It is worth mentioning that Smith's plans are only in the field of ideas, at least until the merger between the companies is made official, in mid-2023. However, clarifying the company's future strategy is a way to not only calm down the gamer community, as well as avoiding possible problems with regulatory bodies in the acquisition process.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice are evaluating the agreement between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard to see if there is a chance the merger could harm the market or consumers. In that case, Smith's comments may show that Microsoft does not intend to monopolize franchises, making it easier to pass the merger.

Microsoft's strategy makes sense and is very promising

Despite investing a lot of money in buying video game studios and holding companies, Microsoft seems to have different strategies for each acquisition. For example, it makes sense for Bethesda to launch Starfield — a first-of-its-kind game — as an Xbox exclusive, with the aim of attracting new subscribers to Game Pass.

Call of Duty, on the other hand, has been a multi-factor franchise for nearly 20 years. Pulling the PlayStation series out of thin air isn't the best choice, not least because most of the installed base of CoD players is on Sony's consoles. Now, yes, Microsoft's strategy makes sense and can benefit both the company and the community at the same time.

If Smith's plans come true, Microsoft will have enough firepower to dominate the gaming market with heavy franchises and popular services such as Xbox Game Pass and Cloud Gaming. Sony needs to wake up if it doesn't want to be in the dust.