Activision CEO Made 'A Bad Judgement' In Not Supporting The Nintendo Switch More

To be fair, they did try Call of Duty on Wii U and who really cared about that?

Damn, well at least that's the only mistake Bobby Kotick has ever made.

@PessitheMystic Call of Duty or the Wii U? (I don't think you are being fair there lol.)

@PessitheMystic it was good. The COD dual screen was fun

@PessitheMystic Tbf people generally didn't care about the Wii U, therefore they also wouldn't care about CoD on Wii U

Bobby Kotick having bad judgment?!? Get outta here!

Aw this struggling double digit billion dollar publisher needs the help of the good samaritans over at Microsoft to make this happen! Don’t ask why they won’t consider doing this anyway if the deal falls through.

Just shows you don’t need any business talent to be a CEO - just a healthy appetite for (alleged) misconduct

Skipping a whole console for all your major games was a bad idea!? No $#!+.

@PessitheMystic I'm not big on FPS in general, but I gave both BLOPS 2 and Ghost a go on the Wii U. Then we got crickets after that.

Why Ryû Ga Gotoku Studio still cannot accept the same? Why they don't want accept their mistake? We still don't have Lika A Dragon games on Nintendo Switch... And Call of Duty games too. It's not too late to change things to a good side, though, imo.

Both the GameCube and Wii U got TWO Call of Duty games each... that's on Nintendo's worst-performing home consoles to date.

The Wii got four.

The DS got FIVE, all of which were built from the ground up due to the limitations of the platform. None on the 3DS though, strangely.

Meanwhile, the Switch gets a grand total of ZERO Call of Duty games, even as the market leader with a stronger presence of "core" gamers when compared to the Wii/DS, and the fact that the Switch has been around for 6.5 years now. Even barebones ports of the Wii/Wii U-era titles would have made sense over nothing at all.

As far as stupid business decisions are concerned, Activision should not only receive some kind of award, but a whole trophy case full. I don't even care for the franchise, but the total absence of the IP on Switch is utterly mind-boggling.

My years of cod as follows. Cod4 on pc for several years, then cod on Wii U, for several years. No cod since…

I did my bit back in the day.I purchased both the Wii U titles on release day, even though I wasn't that interested in them. I just wanted the Wii U to be a viable platform for 3rd party stuff, I guess looking at COD sales on all machines from Gamecube upwards probably doesn't even equal the sales of one core entry on Xbox or PlayStation so I guess I can understand their reservations.

That being said, having the Wii releases remastered in HD in one collection would be nice...

It took them 6 years to admit that, when it took Bethesda -2 years to be interested in having Doom (2016) on the Switch.

They at least have supported the system some.

If they made a mistake EA made one that is 100x bigger.

Lmao! Realized he lost potential money huh?

I had a really good time with CoD 4 way back on the PS3, but I feel I got all I needed out of that franchise and Switch has dozens of FPS games these days.

I'm not saying "too little too late" I'm just surprised they're interested this many years after Switch proved a big success, but I'm sure they'll make a killing if they launch a few titles on Switch.

It's not really my cup of tea anymore, but all the same, the more the merrier!

@PessitheMystic I had both copies and never had a hard time finding a match. So people did buy it.

At least he admits his mistake…I know EA has a few games on the system, but I bet even a gimped version of Madden would have sold several million….

It's absurd that signing a 10-year agreement should be enough to justify the merger when they could just start being anti-competitive after 10 years. I think we've all seen what happens when a gaming company gets too big ::cough:: EA ::cough::

"Trying to do too much" Oh you mean like the Wii and motion controls? Who couldn't see the Switch coming out ON FIRE?? It was marveled at by both portable players and home console players. They were literally merging both of their player bases and it does too much?? What a complete moron!!! And this dbag is a CEO people!! Maybe he was too busy sexually harassing people.

So much egg on all these CEO’s faces for their continued disdain of Nintendo consoles and their fanbase. We’ve seen it time and time again with bad ports, misguided alternate versions of flagship titles and just a general disinterest in reading Nintendo’s audience. There’s nothing like seeing the second best home console in the history of gaming not need the anemic Call of Duty franchise to thrive.

@PessitheMystic I cared. It was the best version of the game, especially dual screen online co-op. Day one purchase for me. And there are still matches to play in even now. And it did sell over 1 million copies vs 13.5 million consoles sold.

I don’t care about any activision games except the classics, which Nintendo should have already had by now on a cartridge like the Atari ones. Activision really dropped the ball big time by not releasing those.

The cloud market isn’t growing. It’s failing in spectacular fashion. They want to spark innovation?! Then make ports specific to the platforms you want!

Seeing Cod missing out on the most popular platform is like seeing the annoying screaming kid fall down. Your justice sensors give you pure 100% bliss

It bodes well for Switch getting more third party support for their next gen. They'll be able to continue their strategy of first party games, indies, proven third parties (like Red Dead 2 or something could be the Skyrim for Switch 2*) and the odd miracle port. Worked out ok for them with the og Switch!

*unless Bethesda re-releases Skyrim yet again, then Skyrim will be the Skyrim of their next console...

He's just spouting utter rubbish here. If what he says is even remotely true, then why is there still no COD on Switch, huh? Its not like the Switch became successful recently, is it?

They've chosen not to support the console because they simply can't be bothered. I don't necessarily blame them for it either. Online is a huge part of COD's appeal, and Nintendo's online infrastructure is amateur at best. Why would anyone want to try and make that work?

Oh, and yes. That's precisely why GTA V remains absent from Switch too.

We can all thank Nintendo for their crappie online as to why we don't have these games on the console.

Blows my mind there is still no COD or Madden on the third best selling console of all time.

Hell, the Sims alone on the Switch should have raked in the dough for EA. What a bunch of shortsighted idiots.

@kingbk I think we are all being a bit naive here. If we really think about it... we know the truth.

Nintendo has terrible, and I mean truly dreadful, online infrastructure.

COD (and FIFA, and GTA V) make the overwhelming majority of their money from digital currency and microtransactions.

That revenue is fuelled by online.

COD not being on Switch is not short sighted. It is a sign of the times within a very unhealthy videogame industry. They don't think they can make enough money from it.

A profit? Yes it'll make a profit. But it won't make the billions they want.

"the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market"

Nobody took the time to tell him nobody likes that cloud garbage eh?

@nocdaes I know I would never pay Nintendough to ever so graciously let me play another companies game online.

I think he made another bad judgment in hearing today, when he claimed that putting Call of Duty on a subscription service was an awful idea. I think the judge echoed everyone's immediate response of 'then why the heck agree to the merger!?' Mind you, he still gets 3 billion dollars if the deal doesn't go ahead!

Coming off the Wii U it’s understandable, but simply watching the consoles sales numbers and the rate those sales were increasing, should have have been obvious enough to anyone, that even some support would have been good, or at the very least testing the waters with a title.

A more logical decision would have been “If the console hits XX million sales, we’ll support it.” But again that would be logical.

"Obviously Activision is too good for Nintendo. They don't want to waste their money on a loser console"

"OH WAIT! The Switch is selling!!! QUICK: DAMAGE CONTROL"

COD with Gyro would make it at least interesting enough for me to check reviews and say "eh, I'll buy next year's edition!" (Like every other version and year)

I think bobby just needed to say “I made a bad judgement”

Forget the Nintendo switch part, he made a bad judgement about TONS of stuff. And still is. He probably doesn’t care about most of them though. Only the ones that would have made him more moolah

Well you waste your time avoiding it so now you will only get to think about it. Minecraft was avoiding Nintendo as well until Microsoft bought Mojang and finally made Minecraft possible and it's a hit in Japan and the UK whereas before it was nothing major as Sony and Mojang didn't do a good job of marketing it overseas.

You can understand where they were coming from after the Wii U's failure. But at the same time, I think they could have pivoted early or mid-generation to bring Call of Duty to the Switch when the numbers proved otherwise.

@PessitheMystic Well…it was the Wii U not the Switch. That would be like ditching support on Sony consoles just because the Vita sold similar numbers.

@PessitheMystic I loved Call of Duty Ghosts on WiiU

I think fully fledged CoD on a handheld would have been a big draw for a lot of people early on in the Switch’s life. I’m surprised they didn’t at least try one CoD game.

@kingbk No NHL is the most annoying thing for me. I really don’t get why they don’t put any other sports games out beyond FIFA reskins when 2K seem to do well enough with NBA to keep releasing new versions

@nocdaes I don't agree with this.

125 million people have a Switch. If even 1% of the user base bought a title, that is 1,250,000 copies sold.

I'm telling ya, there are TONS of Switch owners, like me, who would love playing NFL football on a portable device.

And Fortnite, Rocket League, Overwatch, Apex Legend, big online games, are all on the Switch.

personally can't blame him Nintendo failed so hard with the Wii U and the 3DS is there worst selling handheld your going to be very skeptical

@Imani you can always use the steam deck as a steam link remote device, anything your deck can't handle can always be processed on your rig.

Huh. You don't.say.

Bob Kotick is a moron, what did he expect, another Wii U?

They could only tell so much with Nintendo consoles going up and down but I mean still. Nintendo learned from the Wii U. I like the Wii U but they did a good change for sales/marketing/understandable to anyone ideas in it that I can see why.

Then again COD Mobile/Warzone would have made sense if it's on Phones and comparable to Switch power even if a few years behind. Can't have been that hard to support them I guess...... Maybe I don't know how much it would have taken to be comparable even if phones have surpassed it in power these days as the years have gone on. (Why would I compare to consoles that's just stupid phones/handheld hardware is not comparable to console hardware ARM or x86/Power PC whichever of the past custom hardware for consoles).

I won't deny the Switch could have been a N64 or so 30 million for all we know while the Wii U yes under the GameCube but comparable in some ways (cases, families understanding it with the marketing, sales/game appeal).

Besides that power wouldn't have if the Wii did well with good marketing (I know isn't mentioned but still) and besides a handheld has a place not only smartphones and people have made it clear they can take it anywhere and use it. It may not be comparable to a MP3 player or Camera with specific audiences in mind but sometimes they do reach further when they do a good job convincing people of what you can do with it besides cracking out a board game/card game you can digitally on Switch.

From the marketing it was clear they were going to make a good console, and other mature games on the system not just oh Skylanders Imaginators and Spyro/Crash as the closest they care besides maybe King mobile games if those are on Switch I don't know. They clearly don't try hard enough.

Besides hmm I don't know actually trying. I mean many go 'oh the audience isn't big enough, oh we don't know about sales on Nintendo platforms'. Maybe actually try and see, whether early gen or later gen, maybe middle. Actually try, their too safe these days and in some ways it's fair it's hard to gauge but sometimes a good throw out there is worth giving a chance to see if it works. I mean Bethesda put Skyrim on there at launch even, it wasn't even on the Wii U. To me it could have been like Elder Scrolls on PSP that was cancelled or the NGage one who knows of 'hmm maybe didn't do well' but it gets people's heads turning that's for sure. I'd say so as much as a 4 MW1 Remastered on Switch could then the Gameloft Modern Combat titles do to have a COD experience on Switch.

@PessitheMystic yes but also, not many cared for the Wii U; unlike the Switch, so...

One's junk is another's treasure. It made room for many other games that probably would not have even got a look from gamers. It's impossible to predict what a console will do in a new generation to be fair. But I get it, Nintendo is not considered one of the mainstream consoles, so anything you put there will be taking a chance especially if your game has a chance to not reach the demographic there. Sometimes you just have to take a chance. But at the very least, never bet against Nintendo whether you like them or not.

@PessitheMystic to be fair the only people who bought a Wii U were Nintendo hardcore loyalists or those who were fans of then niche franchises like Xenoblade, Bayonetta, Fatal Frame or the odd Atlus game. The Wii U is a very poor indicator of franchise sales as we've learned with the Switch. I love the Wii U, great system with a great library, but not a system to draw those who wanted to play COD outside of the few itching for an FPS who already owned one.

As for why put COD on it in the first place... Well after the Wii do you bet against Nintendo? COD sold pretty damn well on Wii too, so it at the time seemed like a no brainier. After the Wii U, Activision probably wanted some sort of guarantee the Switch was just not a Wii U 2 and well... They were wrong and should had supported it better.

Actually, one of my favorite things about the Switch is that trash is nowhere to be found on it.

Kotick is truly a dumb@ss. Any competent CEO would've known by the end of 2017 that Switch was a smash hit.

Never think you're less intelligent than these corporate goons like Kotick. They aren't mega-geniuses nor operating on another level than the rest of us. 💡

I mean, I don't exactly blame him. As great as the Wii U was, it was a dismal failure of a system. Only the Virtual Boy sold worse (note, I don't include the Game Boy Micro or the 64DD, since the former was a hardware update, and the latter was an add-on; neither were standalone systems like the Virtual Boy was).

Based on that, I'm sure a lot of developers were holding off on developing for the Switch until it proved itself worthy. They didn't want to potentially take a loss by developing for a system that wouldn't sell. But as we all know, the Switch has sold like hotcakes, now standing as the third-best-selling console of all time.

Because of that, we started to see more third-party developers flocking to the system. Now, some third-party titles are exclusive to the platform, such as Bayonetta 3. If Activision Blizzard wants to develop for the Switch now, better late than never, I say.

At least they're putting out some somewhat decent-quality content with what little they are putting out for the Switch; the same cannot be said for EA, which seems more content with putting out the 2017 version of their EA Sports games every year, albeit with updated rosters and kits (which gets them a lower and lower score each year from Nintendo Life).

Well at least we now have an official explanation why no CoD ever came to the Switch. I was always dumbfounded that the Wii U managed to get 2 entries while the mega-success Switch did not. Just absolutely absurd. Although his argument is still no excuse. It's understandable to have been skeptical of the Switch at launch, especially when considering the failure of the Wii U that had just occured, but they could have and should have reversed course when they saw the Switch selling like gangbusters week after week, month after month, year after year. Shameful and pathetic Activision. Not that I really even like CoD very much. I just like to play Zombies.

BLOPS2 on Wii U was one of my most played

I think it's a good thing to keep Activision away from Nintendo consoles. The only smart decision from this as*hole.

If they bring a call of duty build from the ground up for switch, done well. Day one for me.

@cyrus_zuo Yep, I really want the Mass Effect Trilogy on Switch. Even if they ported the 360 games over, that would suffice.

Bobby Kotick having poor judgment? Noooo never! 🙃

COD probably would've sold like gangbusters on Switch too bc kids whose parents bought them a Switch thinking it's "safe" would get it Day 1. Online would be interesting tho.

I think this testimony may help swing this whole case in the favor of those that are against the deal. Logic would say that Microsoft isn’t going to to take the game away from anyone so why block it, but you can probably tell that if the Switch Too ends up being as successful as the Switch Won, then you can’t ignore them anymore. And when Kotick said eh Microsoft would be capable of making it in Switch. We probably wouldn’t be able to, my thing about that is… figure it out.

All of this is not a reason to block the deal but it did not help MS.

Nobody cares about cloud gaming.

@nocdaes nah bruh, Switch's online sucks, yes, but it's (1) intentional because Nintendo knows its audience has way more kids than others, so they're frustratingly but understandably way too cautious, and (2) Fortnite found a way around this. While Daycare-- I mean, Fortnite is far less complex and has a lower threshold than CoD, Epic was willing to find a way because they are aggressive when it comes to the competition, as opposed to Activision, which is mostly competing with its own stupidity.

To be honest, if I wanted to play cod I would not pick my switch as the platform to go, even if it's my favorite console. I would go for ps or Xbox. If I had a proper PC then that.