Nintendo Switch’s Tech Limitations Won’t Allow It To Run Call Of Duty, Believes The CMA

The CMA documents have revealed that the regulator doesn’t believe Nintendo Switch will be able to run Call of Duty. Granted, the agreement between Nintendo and Microsoft is legally binding, but the platform’s technical problems make the FPS title’s arrival on it uncertain.

The CMA also believes that even if problems are overcome, the experience will differ from PlayStation and Xbox consoles. In addition, the regulator also uncovered that Activision wanted to develop Call of Duty for the console in the past.

However, it did not succeed in accomplishing this task because of storage capacity problems on Nintendo Switch. We also get hints about additional work and other technical issues coming up in this port in redacted sentences.

A few days ago, Microsoft made a deal with Nintendo and Nvidia to bring Call of Duty to their platforms. It proved that the company was willing to share the part of the deal Sony called irreplaceable. The Japanese giant is the only one not accepting Microsoft’s offer for Call of Duty right now, even though its license expires next year.

Hence, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision has been in limbo due to this hurdle. One other roadblock in the deal’s pathway has been the CMA, which opposed the merger outright. The regulator also released a report constituting all of its data and findings concerning the parties involved.

We have found a lot of interesting stuff from it. For instance, how the shooting genre dominates the PlayStation ecosystem and it has also dropped hints about Nintendo Switch 2. As it turns out, the CMA also has some insight to give about the upcoming consoles’ predecessor, specifically its deal with Call of Duty.

The UK regulator actually believes that the Nintendo Switch will not be able to offer Call of Duty to customers. ResetEra user Idas’ summary of February 8, 2023, documents informed us of this.

It went on to explain that relative to Xbox and PlayStation, the console doesn’t have the same catalog of “graphically intensive” titles. For sure, there are exceptions like Fortnite and Apex Legends, but it tames in comparison to its competitors.

Hence, the CMA believes it may not be capable to offer the graphically intensive multiplayer experience of Call of Duty. Even if the franchise does come to Nintendo Switch, the experience won’t be similar to other consoles. Details like storage, graphics, and framerate will differ a lot due to the console’s technical limitations.

Furthermore, even though Microsoft’s deal with Nintendo is “legally binding“, it doesn’t certify Call of Duty will arrive on the platform. As per the CMA, the reason for this is the hardware limitations compared to PlayStation and Xbox. Even if no issues come up regarding the nature of the deal, these issues will need fixing.

Hence, you can’t tell how much the Call of Duty experience will differ on the console. Due to all this, the CMA is unable to place material weight on Microsoft’s ability to bring the FPS series to the Switch.

In addition, Activision has already tried to port Call of Duty to the console and failed. The regulator uncovers on page 94 that as per Activision’s internal documents, the company thought about developing the FPS for Nintendo Switch. But, it didn’t succeed because of storage issues arising due to the console’s technical problems.

The documents redacted the space Call of Duty would need on the Nintendo Switch. But, telling by the context, it would be more than the 125-175GB on console and PC. Furthermore, another Activision document has redacted statements about additional work and the technical issues regarding this port.

Hence, even though the Nintendo Switch has a few high-end games like Apex Legends and Doom Eternal, the CMA believes it can’t run Call of Duty.

But, as the regulator says, it hasn’t impacted the console’s strength in the market, and it probably won’t in the future. Of course, there is a contract this time, so we can only hope things work out.