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Microsoft is currently locked in a courtroom battle with the Federal Trade Commission over its proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and although the focus is mostly on Xbox, on day two of the proceedings, the Nintendo Switch has already been roped into the fight.
The FTC has been attempting to argue the Switch is a very different platform (and experience) to the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 – suggesting it’s not really part of the same market by comparing its technical capabilities, with lines about its frame rate and how it compares in terms of GPU teraflops.
As highlighted by The Verge, Microsoft head of gaming and Xbox chief Phil Spencer didn’t necessarily agree, noting how it’s “incorrect” for the FTC to say “Nintendo isn’t a competitor” when it still occupies the same space and even hosts the same and similar third-party content. Essentially, the FTC is claiming Nintendo won’t be impacted like PlayStation will be by the acquisition.
It doesn’t appear to be the most convincing angle from the FTC – considering Microsoft has already penned 10-year deals with a number of other parties including Nintendo (Sony chose not to sign) to host Call of Duty on their respective platforms if the acquisition is passed. This would also arguably drive home the fact that Nintendo, and the Switch, are still very much in the same market as Sony and Xbox – even if its approach pivots.
Factoring in sales alone – the Switch has absolutely dominated the video game hardware space since its arrival in 2017, with more than 125 million units sold as of March 2023 and software sales surpassing the billion mark in May of this year. So the hybrid system supporting both console and handheld play definitely is a competitor, even if Nintendo chooses to not directly compete with the high-end specs and games on Microsoft and Sony’s systems.
Back in April of this year, UK’s CMA suggested the Switch was not “technically capable” of running Call of Duty games, which is definitely amusing considering how many “impossible ports” have been released during the Switch’s lifetime, as well as the fact past Nintendo systems, including the Wii U, have had CoD games released on them.