For Nintendo, adding a violent first-person shooter game like Call of Duty to the host of titles available to play on the Switch would be a surprising departure. The company has long been protective of the playful, family-friendly branding it has developed over decades through iconic franchises like Mario, Pokemon and The Legend of Zelda, though it does offer some more mature games.
Sony and Microsoft have sparred often over a similar segment of so-called hard-core gamers, who might be more drawn to dark, story-driven games or challenging and violent combat games.
But Nintendo has built an empire marketing lovable, candy-colored characters, like the squishy pink Kirby and the smiling dinosaur Yoshi. At the beginning of the pandemic, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a tranquil game in which players build virtual islands, became a smash hit.
Nintendo’s newest console, the Switch is significantly cheaper than Sony’s PlayStation 5 or Microsoft’s Xbox Series X, and differs from the more expensive, boxier consoles by being small and portable, so players can game on the go.
The Switch has been a huge success, selling 114 million units as of the end of September. But it has less processing power than the newest Microsoft and Sony consoles, raising questions about what kind of an experience playing Call of Duty would be on a Nintendo device.
“Nintendo has done a great job of creating a family-friendly platform that can be successful for all kinds of creators,” Mr. Spencer said, adding that there was “definitely work” to be done to make Call of Duty run well on the Switch.Still, Nintendo does already offer some shooter games on the Switch, like Fortnite, and Call of Duty could appeal to Nintendo users who want a “flexible style of gameplay,” said David Gibson, a senior analyst for the Australia-based financial services company MST Financial. The move, he said, would be “good for Nintendo’s platform for sure.”
Gaming has become Microsoft’s most important consumer business, and when it announced the Activision acquisition in January it signaled that getting approval from antitrust regulators could be cumbersome. Microsoft said closing the deal could take a year and a half, and agreed to pay Activision as much as $3 billion if the tie-up falls apart.
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