Nintendo

Microsoft, Nintendo Reach 10-Year Deal For Call Of Duty Rights

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A new 10-year agreement has been reached between Microsoft and Nintendo. The deal will ensure that the Call of Duty video games are available on Nintendo consoles if Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard closes. 

According to reports from The Verge, the deal is a clear attempt to pressure Sony into accepting a similar offer. The decade-long length is similar to what Microsoft offered Sony earlier this week.

Robert Griffin III attends Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II event at the 2022 NFL Draft on April 27, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Activision)

Now that Nintendo has agreed to the deal, Microsoft hopes that Sony will follow suit. If they do agree to the deal, each new Call of Duty release will also be available on PlayStation consoles the same day as XBox.

However, Sony has reportedly been warning regulators of its concerns surrounding the future of the first-person shooter video game franchise. A recent 10-year commitment by Sony followed a public back and forth between the Japanese corporation and Microsoft.

Additionally, Microsoft has promised to continue offering new versions of the video game franchise on Steam. These will launch simultaneously with the Call of Duty launches on XBox consoles.

On January 18, Microsoft officially announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard for a whopping $68.7 billion.

If and when the acquisition closes and becomes official, the video game franchise will essentially belong to Microsoft’s corporation. 

The first self-titled Call of Duty game was published and launched by Activision in 2003. Since then, the company has released 19 titles in the game’s main series. 

The franchise remains one of the most popular in the world. According to a report from Paste Magazine earlier this year, the first-person shooter series is the third best-selling franchise of all time.

I think it’s safe to say that no matter the agreements in place, Call of Duty will continue to be played and enjoyed by gamers all over the world. With 425 million sales in 19 years, it beat out Super Mario and Grand Theft Auto for the third spot.

What do you think of the new agreement between Microsoft and Nintendo? Will Sony follow suit? Comment down below.

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A Song From A 26-Year-Old ‘Kirby’ Game Is Now The First Nintendo Track To Ever Win A Grammy

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Kirby And The Forgotten Land
Nintendo

Every year, there are always at least a couple Grammy nominations that stick out. This year, one of those was in the Best Arrangement, Instrumental Or A Cappella category: Nominated was an arrangement of “Meta Knight’s Revenge,” a song from the 1996 Super Nintendo game Kirby Super Star, as arranged by Charlie Rosen and Jake Silverman and performed by The 8-Bit Big Band featuring Button Masher (Silverman’s performing name).

Video game songs aren’t nominated that often so what happened last night was big: “Meta Knight’s Revenge” (which appears on The 8-Bit Big Band’s 2021 album Backwards Compatible) actually won the award.

This is a huge moment in Nintendo history and in video game history more broadly; Eurogamer notes this is only the second time a song originally from a video game has taken home a Grammy, following Christopher Tin’s 2010 win for Best Instrumental Arrangement With Vocalist(s), for a song composed for Civilization 4. Previously, Journey composer Austin Wintory got a nomination in the Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media category in 2013 but didn’t win.

So, that means this Kirby win is the first time a song from a Nintendo game has ever won a Grammy. This news arrives with especially good timing, as it quickly follows the March 25 release of the latest Kirby game, Kirby And The Forgotten Land for Nintendo Switch.

Rosen shared an excited reaction on the social media pages for The 8-Bit Big Band, posting a photo of himself and Silverman with their trophies and writing, “HOLY SH*T WE WON THE GRAMMY!!LONG LIVE VIDEO GAME MUSIC!! Thank you to everybody who’s ever listened to [The 8-Bit Big Band], the 100s of artists who have contributed their time/talent/musicianship, and of course HUGE thanks to my co-arranger on Meta Knights Revenge the one and only [Jake Silverman] !! MUCH LOVE, [Charlie Rosen].”

Rosen also posted this pretty terrific Kirby graphic a few days ago:

Watch The 8-Bit Big Band and Button Masher perform “Meta Knight’s Revenge” above. Also check out where Kirby Super Star (and another SNES Kirby game) ranks on our list of the 100 best Super Nintendo games (according to over 200,000 players) here.