As far as gaming franchises go,Call of Dutyis as big as they get. Raking in millions of dollars every year,Call of Dutyhas remained at the very top of sales charts for well over a decade, and while its critical reception ebbs and flows, its success only continues to grow every year. It only makes sense that once Microsoft gets its hands onActivision’s IPs, it’ll want to keep the franchise growing, and according to a recent statement, that could mean bringing the series back to Nintendo consoles.
Back in the 2000s,Call of Dutycould be found on absolutely every platform, with some of the earlier entries even having ports on previous-gen consoles like the PlayStation 2. For a while, Nintendo received dedicated ports of yearlyCall of Dutytitles, appearing on both the Wii and Nintendo DS, but after a few years this stopped, andCall of Dutyshifted focus to just Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. According to a recent statement from Xbox’s Phil Spencer, however, Microsoft is reportedly planning onbringingCall of Dutyto Nintendo consolesfor at least the next 10 years, but that might not be as good as it sounds.
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Bringing Call of Duty To Switch May Not Be Such a Good Idea
On paper, Phil Spencer’s recent announcement is a positive one. BringingCall of Dutyback to Nintendo consoles benefits all parties in theory. For gamers, those who can’t quite afford the new wave of consoles might finally be able to play one of the biggest franchises on the planet at the same time as everyone else. For Nintendo, it gives even more validation that its console is a viable alternative to its competition, and for Microsoft and Activision, it means that one of its flagship properties does even better than it normally does.
It would also be great to see more big, third-party support on the Nintendo Switch. When the console was first marketed, Nintendo heavily implied that it would be able to keep up with the modern generation of gaming, and feature ports of contemporary titles. Whilethe Switch hasDoom,Wolfenstein,Skyrim, and more, these ported titles tend to be older. The Switch very rarely gets ports of modern releases, with those that do release being Cloud versions, or delayed until they’re no longer relevant. So, having fully-fledged annualCall of Dutyreleases on the Switch could benefit the console greatly.
None of this is to say that portingCall of Dutywould be a breeze. It’s no secret that the Nintendo Switch features some pretty outdated hardware. One of the most prolific examples of this in recent history has been the release ofPokemon Scarlet and Violet, which both ran poorly on the console. While this is also down to developer issues,Pokemon’s poor performancehad many pointing fingers at the Switch’s outdated hardware. The Switch can barely run in its own first-party titles right now; it seems fairly unlikely that it could makeCall of Dutyrun well.
For Microsoft and Activision to putCall of Dutyon the Switch, they might have to hold the franchise back quite a bit, and that’s not great for a series that fans want to be constantly evolving and growing. One way to keep the franchise moving forward but still offer a Switch port is to take a leaf out ofolderCall of Dutytitles on Wii and DS, and create a dedicated, less-intensive port of the game, giving Switch users a similar but dialed-back experience.
