A Call of Duty character hangs on the wall in a stairwell on Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, at Activision Blizzard, Infinity Ward Division, in Woodland Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Allison Dinner)
Microsoft has struck a deal with Nintendo to make Call of Duty available across its platforms.
"We’ve now signed a binding 10-year contract to bring Xbox games to Nintendo’s gamers," Microsoft president Brad Smith tweeted Tuesday.
The deal ensures that Nintendo gamers will have access to the latest Call of Duty titles on "the same day as Xbox, with full feature and content parity." The company came to a similar agreement with Sony to ensure access to the popular franchise for PlayStation gamers as well.
Following Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which is the video game publisher behind Call of Duty, competitors such as Sony have expressed concern that the merger would curb competition in the console market.
In what appears to be an effort to assuage these concerns and get regulatory approval for the purchase, Microsoft is entering agreements to make Call of Duty available across different consoles for at least the next decade.
Disney content has gone dark on YouTube TV, leaving subscribers of the Google-owned live streaming platform without access to major networks like ESPN and ABC. That’s because the companies have failed to reach a new licensing deal to keep Disney channels on YouTube TV. Depending on how long it lasts, the dispute could particularly impact coverage of U.S. college football matchups over the weekend — on top of other news and entertainment disruptions that have already arrived. In the meantime, YouTube TV subscribers who want to watch Disney channels could have little choice other than turning to the company’s own platforms, which come with their own price tags.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
Universal Music Group and AI platform Udio have settled a copyright lawsuit and will collaborate on a new music creation and streaming platform. The companies announced on Wednesday that they reached a compensatory legal settlement and new licensing agreements. These agreements aim to provide more revenue opportunities for Universal's artists and songwriters. The rise of AI song generation tools like Udio has disrupted the music streaming industry, leading to accusations from record labels. This deal marks the first since Universal and others sued Udio and Suno last year. Financial terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
