In late 2022, it was announced that Nintendo fans will once again be able to play Call of Duty games after more than a decade of their absence from the Switch and its predecessors. A 10-year commitment with Nintendo has been made following the pending merger between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, which will finally bring the famous first-person shooter franchise back to Nintendo hardware.The last Call of Duty game to be released on a Nintendo console was 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts on the Wii U, which for many was a notable low point in the series. While Nintendo players may be excited to get their hands on a new CoD game, one of the Nintendo Switch’s biggest problems could mean this news isn’t as exciting as it seems.Related: Call Of Duty Returning To Nintendo After 9 Years Away
Call Of Duty Games On Nintendo Switch Likely Won’t Be New
According to Microsoft vice chairman and president Brad Smith on Twitter, Call of Duty will come to Nintendo alongside Xbox and PlayStation, but there’s no mention of which games will be ported. Additionally, the Switch lacks the capability needed to properly run many modern FPS games, hence the console offering many older titles, including Borderlands, Crysis, Bulletstorm, and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. The Borderlands series is a perfect example of this trend – the first three games are available on the console, but 2019’s Borderlands 3 was never ported to the Switch, making it seem likely Call of Duty‘s latest offerings have little chance of appearing on the Switch.
Call Of Duty Might Wait To Release On The Switch 2
It’s also possible that the Switch will never see a Call of Duty release. On top of its lower specifications, the hybrid console is getting old. Going on six years in March 2023, the Switch has had a very long lifespan for a Nintendo console, so its days are likely numbered, and a successor is imminent. Rumors of a new console, a so-called Switch Pro or Switch 2, continue to crop up, and some reports are now even predicting the next Nintendo console could arrive in 2024. Because of this, Activision Blizzard might decide to wait and release games on a newer, assumably more powerful console.
Regardless of which CoD games get released on what console, the deal is still a winner for the gaming community. If released on the Switch, players will be able to take CoD on the go, playing it from wherever they are. Plus, with Nintendo’s focus on couch play and split-screen, there’s a chance that a new Call of Duty release could once again let friends battle it out in the living room, offering a dose of nostalgia back to the GoldenEye 007 and Turok era.
