A job opening spotted on LinkedIn revealed that Sledgehammer Games is seeking developers “with Switch experience”. Sledgehammer is one of the primary developers of Call of Duty, suggesting that the company plans to bring the military shooter series to Nintendo consoles.
This comes as no surprise—Microsoft is legally obligated. When Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard in October 2023, one of the requirements of the deal was a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty games to Nintendo hardware. However, it wasn’t until now that we’ve seen indications that Microsoft will follow through on that commitment (the latest Call of Duty instalment did not launch on the Switch or Switch 2).
There hasn’t been a Call of Duty on a Nintendo console since Call of Duty: Ghosts sold poorly on the ill-fated WiiU. Of course, Nintendo has made quite the turn around since the WiiU days, and so this decision also makes sense from a pure market share viewpoint. The Nintendo Switch has sold more than 154 million units to date and looks poised to overtake the PlayStation 2 as the best-selling console of all time. In addition, Nintendo’s latest console the Switch 2, had the most successful console launch in history.
