At the Xbox Games Showcase this week, Microsoft officially announced this year's Call of Duty game – Black Ops 7. Microsoft has a legal agreement with Nintendo to release COD titles on Nintendo consoles for the next decade but so far, Black Ops 7 appears to a no-show.

As part of Microsoft's push to get its Activision Blizzard acquisition through regulatory hurdles, the company signed a number of binding agreements with platform holders like Sony and Nintendo to ensure equal access to the Call of Duty IP for the next decade. Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in late 2023 but many assumed Microsoft would be waiting for the Switch 2 before bringing Call of Duty over to a Nintendo console.

However, the Switch 2 is now officially on the market and Black Ops 7 has now been announced for PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4 and PS5, with no mention of Nintendo in sight.

According to sources speaking with Kotaku, Microsoft and Nintendo are “still committed” to getting Call of Duty back on Nintendo platforms. So far, there have been no complaints from Nintendo's side, so chances are the explanations for the delay are reasonable. The Switch 2 is a brand-new system and Nintendo was very selective with which studios got early access. It is entirely possible that Activision only just recently got set up with development kits and no longer has time to port Black Ops 7 to Switch 2 in time for launch.

It is also possible that Nintendo has its own marketing plans and would prefer to announce any Xbox-published titles for Switch 2 during a Nintendo Direct. Rumour has it that Microsoft has big plans for Switch 2 support, so we are expecting at least a few announcements before the end of the year.

KitGuru Says: Considering that COD titles are still releasing on last-gen Xbox and PlayStation consoles, I expect that the Switch 2 will be quite capable of running these games. We couldn't really say the same for the Switch 1, which had much weaker hardware under the hood.

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