Call Of Duty on Switch runs ‘the way people would expect’ says Microsoft
This article first appear at Call Of Duty on Switch runs ‘the way people would expect’ says Microsoft
Microsoft is already sending mixed messages about Call Of Duty on Nintendo consoles and how it might perform on Switch.
In order to help get its Activision Blizzard buy-out approved by regulators, Microsoft has routinely promised to not only keep Call Of Duty on PlayStation, but to also release the games on other platforms.
The company has already said it will bring the franchise to Nintendo Switch and, while at Brussels to win over the European Commission, proudly declared that its arrangement with the big N is now legally binding.
Now, just a day later, Microsoft has said that the game will run on Switch ‘exactly the way people would expect’, which probably isn’t going to be very reassuring for most Switch owners.
Taken at face value, how would you expect a modern Call Of Duty game to run on Switch? Not very well, we imagine. And even if it was a cloud version, how well is that going to work on anything less than a perfect, high-speed broadband connection?
It’s not as if Call Of Duty has never come to Nintendo consoles before. There have been entries on the GameCube, Wii, Wii U, and even the original DS, but they were hardly considered the optimal way to experience the games.
The Wii U port of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2, for example, was perfectly functional but suffered from frame rate issues, meaning its performance was worse than the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC editions.
The Switch is not as powerful as other modern consoles and there are plenty of current and last gen ports that had to sacrifice their performance, or be cloud based versions that don’t require a download, just so they could run on Nintendo’s hardware.
The whole thing makes Microsoft’s promise that Switch ports of Call Of Duty games will offer ‘full feature and content parity’ with the Xbox versions immediately ring hollow.
There is a good chance that Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith doesn’t really understand the implications of what he’s saying, as his quote applies to both GeForce Now and the Switch.
He also admitted to GamesRadar that he’s ‘not the right person to dive into the architecture of each platform.’
Previously it was assumed Microsoft was only thinking of bringing the franchise to Nintendo’s next console, imagined to be out next year or later, but Smith’s new comments make that less certain.
First appear at Call Of Duty on Switch runs ‘the way people would expect’ says Microsoft
