Sony Says that "Nintendo younger audience" is not interested in Call of Duty.

A new internal report from MLex says this:

Microsoft's Call of Duty deal with Nintendo is misleading, Sony argues

Sony has criticized Microsoft's deal to make the game Call of Duty available on Nintendo — should its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard be approved by regulators — as smoke and mirrors, MLex has learned.

Activision Blizzard could supply Call of Duty to Nintendo today, but doesn't, because Nintendo's younger audience is not interested in the first-person shooter and a previous version of the game on its console was a commercial flop, the arch critic of the deal says, MLex understands.

Instead of being a logical business decision, the licensing agreement is a tactic designed to make Microsoft — whose acquisition has drawn concerns in the EU, UK and US — look cooperative with regulators, the argument goes.

Furthermore, Nintendo's Switch could not run Call of Duty easily and may never be able to, Sony argues, MLex understands. Developing a version of the game compatible with the Switch could take years, making a 10-year licensing deal meaningless.

It is easier for Nintendo to enter into such an agreement, Sony says, MLex has learned. Nintendo doesn't need to worry about equal treatment for its subscription service or cloud gaming service as those are not areas where it currently competes aggressively, the argument goes.

Delicious Sony tears 🤣

Pretty sure Call of Duty sold just fine on the Wii

I mean seriously - who picked out Sony’s legal team? Some of the arguments they’ve come up with have been laughable.

COD wouldn't sell on the Switch so there not wrong.

these clowns keep making excuses, MS made the commitment so its coming to nintendo period. Likely it will stay on nintendo for the forseeable future too, unlike with activision who pulled CoD because it only sold a few hundred thousand copies on nintendo.

MS isn't as profit driven as other companies, they're more about building the service and the audience. They will keep the game on nintendo long term as long as the game doesn't return too bad in the negative.

You can't have it both ways Sony is CoD a multiplat juggernaut that needs to stay independent or do gamers on one of the biggest platforms ever Nintendo switch not even care about it? Which is it Nintendo Switch is way bigger than the PS5 right now Sony which is it.

I woulda bought CoD's on the switch so I dunno why they say it won't sell on there.

@loco145: Sony is looking more and more like they are out for their own self interests rather than "industry competition and health". There is a big difference - the former is something regulators should ignore, the latter is what is supposed to matter.

The simple truth is that the industry dictates competitors. And, the industry has decided that the current "video game consoles" that are in competition with each other are XBox, PlayStation, and Switch. Sony can bark all they want, but they do not get to dictate who is in competition with whom.

They are really looking bad now. If they are not careful, this deal will go through without a guarantee from Microsoft.

There are plenty of mature games on switch that sell well.

I think COD on switch would be great for the industry even if it doesn't sell massive numbers.

There are people who would play it there, especially if it has multiplayer

In the Xbox, PS2, Game Cube days, most 3rd party bangers were released on all three.

Sony's legal team

Mista, mista giv'us a CoD will ya?

Oh yeah, I had Call of Duty Finest Hour and Big Red One on Gamecube back in the day.

I don't think Activision was happy with Nintendo having a weaker system with the Wii compared to the 360 + PS3, but the Wii still got COD3, World at War, Black Ops, Modern Warfare, and I believe Modern Warfare 3. Pretty sure all the ports came from Treyarch.

Then WiiU got Black Ops 2 and Ghosts and that was the end of it. I think Activision was pissed that it put those games on WiiU plus others like Mass Effect 3 and the system sold so poorly. Going into the Switch I believe Activision publicly said they didn't plan to support the platform.

I think Sony is right on this though, despite some people saying their argument is weak. It makes sense that Microsoft would use the Nintendo deal as a means to make it appear that they're cooperative, and thus making Sony look like the one's who really aren't. Furthermore, I don't see CoD doing very well on the Switch either; for one, it lacks power. And secondly, though it does have "mature" games, what were the previous numbers for CoD titles that appeared on Nintendo's older consoles? Ultimately, it would probably be beneficial if Nintendo spoke up on this matter so as to either aid Microsoft or to help Sony. I seriously doubt they care about Sony though, if they agreed to have a ten year deal with MS.

Sony is so stupid. Microsoft isnt trying to make record breaking money with this deal, theyre trying to help the competition and give gamers more games.

I thought kids were the majority that play CoD games. Sony is just mad.

I think this also says wonders that Sony has worked hard to keep 3rd-party games off other platforms.

Are they wrong? Seems like a good argument tbh.

The 10 year deal, imo, is at best aimed towards next gen Nintendo hardware which is either 1) years away or 2) already in the cards for Activision. Heck, Activision could have implement Nintendo's cloud streaming solution if the Switch hardware was a problem.

LOL! Yes, Microsoft is doing this for completely altruistic purposes. 🤣 They're so benevolent.

Furthermore, Nintendo's Switch could not run Call of Duty easily and may never be able to

Not a single lie detected

Younger people buy Manhunt, GTA and COD because they want to act mature

Older people buy Pokemon, mario and Pikmin, because these are the great games we know from our youth. And they're still amazing.

Lol Sony... this is getting embarrassing.

cows are delusional...activision didn't release a single CoD on switch, and for the wii u it was a token effort with 1 game, and gamecube was also a token effort. With MS, theres a higher chance that CoD will stay on the nintendo consoles.

@blaznwiipspman1: They even made Call of Duy for DS and Wii also. But Microsoft is gonna bring CoD to Switch. And now that we have cloud streaming well get the same single player game. Microsoft is amazing. Sony are greedy evil dictators that need to go away like Sega. Sony is trash, all they make is boring movies.

@blaznwiipspman1: Two. Ghost was on Wii U.

Yup.

Hey, Sony. MS already had receipts with Bayonetta. Did you forget that?

That is some really sad reasoning there from Sony. 😅

Have they ever been in a CoD lobby?

Sony seems desperate,it’ll argue anything even in the slightest to sway the decision in Sony’s favour. Didn’t Sony turn down a deal that Microsoft offered a 10 year CoD contract?

We know.

Sony's argument is WHY. Why have they not released COD on Switch?

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What exactly does Microsoft offer re: COD that Activision cannot currently do for Nintendo?

Cloud streaming? GamePass isn't on Switch and we know Nintendo's not interested. Nintendo also already offers cloud streaming games on Switch.

Lack of hardware power? That hasn't stopped other third party studios from delivering games like The Witcher 3 etc. Heck, why isn't COD Mobile or Warzone Mobile on Switch? A next gen console could very well be the answer and, that would be the case whether it's Microsoft or Activision that owns COD.

Lack of network infrastructure (Nintendo Online)? Microsoft isn't going to solve that.

Lack of interest in the product? Nintendo has a much larger install base than Xbox in EVERY market so why no interest? Maybe it's the audience?

It's a dog and pony show.

Actually it's a good question they pose. AB certainly could have published CoD games on switch all of this time. Why haven't they? Regardless of what your standpoint on the deal is, it's a question worthy of entertaining.

@Nonstop-Madness: the why is simple, its just not profitable enough to put CoD on the switch. Thats just the bottom line. Theres lots of details, and you're probably right about all of them, but it comes down to money end of the day.

But MS is willing to build a COD for the switch, and they probably would do it as long as the game broke even, or even if it didn't as long as it didn't bleed money. Heck MS brought doom eternal over to the switch in late 2020. They brough over skyrim, and a bunch of other bethesda games.

He’s right, a 10 year deal for Nintendo is meaningless, MS would likely just support Nintendo with CoD indefinitely once they start. I think MS actually like Nintendo.

@blaznwiipspman1: Shoot, Nintendo would pay for everything. They pay all development cost.

@mesome713: yes, I think Nintendo would probably be willing to make some sort of deal.

Is it? Why did we get Bayo 3, which was part of Microsoft's receipts last week? This is Sony being out of touch about Nintendo, and it isn't the first time (I remember Jack Tretton having no kind words on the Pokemon IP and both them and EVO went all Eric Andre when Smash was pulled out).

The **** is that kind of argument, lol? Pretty sure Nintendo will release new hardware in the next 10 years.

Hops in CoD lobby on PS5 with voicechat on...

Sony is so desperate its funny. Nintendo doesn't even care if it gets COD, but there you go. MS Is just covering their bases to shutdown disputes over the deal, which makes Sony even saltier. Suck it up or play.

@nintendoboy16: Yes. It is a relevant question to pose regardless. Why didn't Activision publish cod on switch beforehand? Stop pretending it isn't

@X_CAPCOM_X: Again, considering what we DID get on the Switch, not by Sony's out of touch view.

Because kids don't play CoD?

Sony love condescending Nintendo.

In reality, this whole situation is weird. Why is Sony the one fighting for CoD, like they're entitled to it? They collect the licensing fee and as a third party, it's up to activision to decide what to do with it.

So Sony are screwing over activision... In a hopes of continually getting activisions games which were already on offer. :-S

And they don't think activision will be pissed off in any way about that?

Sony say a lot of things, mostly lies

I don't even have to read Sony's stupid statement to know better. Don't they know how many kids play COD? The only reason it might not sell well on the Switch is because of Nintendo's equally dumb online service.

Pretty sure within 10 years with will be a new Switch or 2.

Sony are losing the plot and getting quite desperate

Not sure about young, but CoD has proven not to be a good seller on Nintendo.

This sound derogatory, but it actually means they are based.

What's funny is that the FTC is parroting Sony's characterization of Nintendo as part of their reason for holding up the acquisition.

It was funny seeing the EU responding to the FTC claims as being incorrect. 😂

Sony’s probably still bitter about Nintendo dumping their ass all those many years ago. 😅

Are you trying to trigger folks?😎