Sorry Microsoft, UK government's seen 'No evidence' the Nintendo Switch can run Call of Duty

Date:
Wed, 01 Mar 2023 16:10:44 +0000

Description:
A UK government watchdog has found a serious flaw with Nintendo and
Microsofts Call of Duty deal.

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A report from the UK governments Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has concluded that the Nintendo Switch is not technically capable of running Call of Duty.

The CMA claimed that the Nintendo Switch cannot run Call of Duty with a similar quality of gameplay as Xbox or PlayStation in a recent report aiming to assess the ramifications of Microsofts anticipated acquisition of Activision Blizzard, as well as the tenability of the recent historic deal between Microsoft and Nintendo where the former pledged to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo consoles.

The CMA is a UK government department which seeks to promote competitive markets in a manner analogous to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States. Their analysis of the viability of Call of Duty on Nintendo hardware comes as a result of the recent legal agreement between Microsoft
and Nintendo which commits to bring[ing] Call of Duty to Nintendo Players - the same day as Xbox, with full feature and content parity.

This deal is a significant part of Microsofts efforts to allay concerns
raised by the FTC that their acquisition of Activision Blizzard would breach United States anti-trust laws by preventing Nintendo and PlayStation from competing in the video games market by withholding access to the wildly popular Call of Duty franchise.

Though this deal is definitely a step towards building a case in the
impending FTC lawsuit , the CMSs findings suggest that bringing Call of Duty to Nintendo consoles may simply be impossible from a hardware standpoint. Of course the release of a more powerful Nintendo Switch 2 could change this, but, as it stands, it looks like Nintendo may simply lack the hardware to
take advantage of its deal with Microsoft. After all, full feature and
content parity is the goal and, without adequate hardware, it seems unlikely that Nintendo will be in a position to provide either. Trust issues (Image credit: Shutterstock)

The CMAs diagnosis of the Nintendo Switch s hardware limitations puts a
damper on Microsofts efforts to reassure the FTC that its acquisition of Activision Blizzard does not breach antitrust laws.

In its report, the CMA asserts that Call of Duty is important to the competitive offering of [Xbox and PlayStation]. It continues by contending that: Microsoft would find it commercially beneficial to make [Call of Duty] exclusive to Xbox or available on Xbox on materially better terms than on PlayStation. We provisionally found that this would substantially reduce competition in gaming consoles to the detriment of gamers which could result in higher prices, reduced range, lower quality, worse service and/or reduced innovation.

The FTCs lawsuit is founded around a similar set of concerns. Should
Microsoft fail to allay these concerns in court, it is likely that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard will be blocked; dealing a significant
blow to the company. This is most likely why Microsoft reached out to
Nintendo to sign their Call of Duty agreement. Failure to deliver on this agreement would undermine Microsofts efforts in the lawsuit and potentially land the company in choppy waters.

All eyes are on Microsoft and Nintendo as we wait to see what steps, if any, either company will take in order to preserve their Call of Duty deal. Microsoft serves Sony a subpoena in preparation for impending FTC lawsuit



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/sorry-microsoft-uk-governments-seen-no-evidence -the-nintendo-switch-can-run-call-of-duty


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