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    Microsoft strikes 10-year deal with Nintendo on Call of Duty

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1818 Views
    Visitors passing an advertisement for the video game 'Call of Duty' at the Gamescom fair for computer games in Cologne, Germany, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017. Microsoft says it struck a deal to make the hit video game Call of Duty available on Nintendo for 10 years when its $69 billion purchase of game maker Activision Blizzard goes through. The announcement Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022 is an apparent attempt to fend off objections from rival Sony. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
    LONDON (AP) --

    Microsoft agreed Wednesday to make the hit video game Call of Duty available on Nintendo for 10 years should its $69 billion purchase of game maker Activision Blizzard go through — an apparent attempt to fend off objections from rival Sony.

    The blockbuster merger is facing close scrutiny from regulators in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere. Microsoft, maker of the Xbox game console, faces resistance from Sony, which makes the competing PlayStation console and has raised concerns with antitrust watchdogs about losing access to what it calls a "must-have" game title.

    Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, tweeted that Microsoft "entered into a 10-year commitment" to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo.

    Microsoft President Brad Smith tweeted his thanks to Nintendo, which makes the Switch game console, saying the same offer was available for Sony.

    "Any day @Sony wants to sit down and talk, we'll be happy to hammer out a 10-year deal for PlayStation as well," he said.

    Smith said the agreement would bring Call of Duty to more gamers and more platforms, and "that's good for competition and good for consumers."

    Sony's European press office didn't respond to a request for comment. Adding to the pressure on Sony, Microsoft also said Wednesday it has committed to keeping Call of Duty on the platform Steam, a digital marketplace for PC games, in an agreement with Steam's operator Valve.

    In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal this week, Smith raised concerns about the possibility that the Federal Trade Commission could take Microsoft to court to stop the deal. Antitrust watchdogs in both Britain and the European Union also are investigating the transaction over concerns it would distort competition.

    At the heart of the dispute is control over future releases of Activision Blizzard's most popular games, especially Call of Duty, a first-person military shooter franchise. Activision reported last month that the latest installment, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, had earned more than $1 billion in sales since its Oct. 28 launch.

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    Tags:Activision BlizzardCall of DutyMicrosoftSony



    On the set of the first Agatha Christie show where mysteries are solved with the internet

    Friday, November 7, 2025
    Antonia Thomas, left, and and Josh Dylan appear on the set of the Agatha Christie series "Tommy & Tuppence" in Beaconsfield, England on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

    The scene: Outside a stately English home, a man and a woman attempt to solve a mystery. What's unusual about this picture?

    They're using the internet.

    In a departure from what could be the logline for many a cozy English mystery before it, "Agatha Christie's Tommy & Tuppence" marks the first time Agatha Christie's work has been modernized for an English-speaking TV audience. In this six-part drama premiering next year, there are phones, social media and TikTok alongside the usual murky secrets, red herrings and nefarious crimes.

    Speaking in late October on the set of the BritBox contemporary series shooting in the U.K., writer and executive producer Phoebe Eclair-Powell says the makers were thrilled to get permission from Christie's estate and have been careful not to "simplify" solving classic puzzles, like a locked room mystery, with new tech.

    "We have used it, but carefully, sparingly, and when we think actually that it's enhanced the original story that it's adapted from," explains Eclair-Powell.

    She says that it's been a "tricky" part of the process, but one they hope Christie herself would approve of.

    In Japan, Korea, India and Sweden, there have already been Christie characters living in the modern age, but this is the first contemporary adaptation in the author's native language.

    "Phoebe came to us with a brilliant take on the stories which put them in the modern day and because of the energy & vitality of these characters it felt completely natural to say yes!" Christie's great-grandson James Prichard, who manages the literary rights to her estate, wrote in an email.

    The Associated Press joined stars Antonia Thomas ("The Good Doctor") and Josh Dylan ("The Buccaneers") in the library of a... Read More

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