Microsoft has signed a “ten-year contract” with nintendo

Late last year, Microsoft entered into an agreement to bring Call of Duty titles to Nintendo consoles. Now, Microsoft president Brad Smith has announced that this agreement is official and “legally binding” as Microsoft has signed a tenyear contract to release Call of Duty games on Nintendo consoles with “full feature and content parity” on the same day as Xbox, should the acquisition be approved.

Xbox inks “binding ten-year contract” with Nintendo over Call of Duty

Making the announcement on Twitter, Smith said, “We’ve now signed a binding ten-year contract to bring Xbox games to Nintendo’s gamers. This is just part of our commitment to bring Xbox games and Activision titles like Call of Duty to more players on more platforms.”

Call of Duty has been a sticking point for regulators who are currently probing Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Many have argued that Microsoft could make the first-person shooter series exclusive to the Xbox platform, which could reduce competition across markets. Microsoft has gone to great lengths to appease regulators in this regard, assuring them that Call of Duty would not be removed from rival platforms for a lengthy period of time. Microsoft also offered Sony a ten-year agreement similar to the one given to Nintendo.

The announcement comes on the same day Microsoft is set to defend its Activision Blizzard deal against EU competition regulators in court. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority ruled that the deal could “harm UK gamers” if it was to be approved.