A newly spotted job listing points to one of Xbox’s biggest franchises finally making the jump to Nintendo Switch.
Back when Microsoft was trying to push through its buyout of Activision Blizzard, part of its strategy to gain approval was to promise that it would bring the Call Of Duty franchise to Nintendo’s platforms.
Ignoring the fact that Call Of Duty had appeared on Nintendo consoles many times before, until Activision realised there was little demand for it, Microsoft signed a deal with Nintendo promising Call Of Duty games would launch for ‘Nintendo players’ on the same day as other platforms ‘with full feature and content parity’ for 10 years.
However, none of that has ever been mentioned again and no Call Of Duty game has appeared on either the Switch or Switch 2, including this year’s Black Ops 7. Nevertheless, Microsoft insists it’s still committed to the idea and now it seems they’re finally making an effort to fulfil their obligation.
This week, Sledgehammer Games – the lead studio behind Call Of Duty games such as Call Of Duty: Vanguard and the Modern Warfare 3 reboot – posted a job listing for a senior technical artist.
According to the LinkedIn listing, the most interesting detail is that candidates for the position should have experience working with the Switch, which points to Sledgehammer wanting to have its next Call Of Duty game playable on Nintendo’s platform.
Presumably, it will be prioritising the Switch 2, since it’s significantly more powerful than the original Switch, which would undoubtedly struggle to run something as graphically demanding as Call Of Duty.
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As for when you can expect Sledgehammer’s next game, rumours point to it being in 2027, with rumours suggesting it’s a new sub-franchise with a martial arts theme.
Next year’s game is rumoured to be Modern Warfare 4 by Infinity Ward, but there’s no indication so far that they are planning to support Switch 2.
Microsoft and Activision could have a Switch 2 port of Black Ops 7 planned before then, but considering players are expected to drop each game for the next instalment, any Switch port would arrive far too late for anyone to care.
It’s worth remembering that Microsoft never specified when its 10-year deal with Nintendo would start. It’s also not clear that Nintendo particularly cares whether Call Of Duty comes to Switch or not, although naturally they’re not going to say no to more third party support.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has repeatedly stressed how keen he is to support Switch 2 with ports of Xbox games but so far, very little has come out of it. Aside from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4, which launched in July, no other Microsoft published games are scheduled for Switch 2 for the rest of the year.
Hopefully, things will pick up in 2026, which is already slated to see ports of Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition and Indiana Jones And The Great Circle.
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