Why UK's watchdog's concern about Nintendo Switch not being "technically capable" for COD is pointless

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), UK’s competition watchdog, recently mentioned in its provisional findings report that Nintendo is not “technically capable” of running Call of Duty on Switch with “similar quality of gameplay” as Xbox or PlayStation.

The CMA’s provisional findings sparked outrage among supporters of the megadeal. It can be remembered that Activision’s own exec lambasted the watchdog’s statements, pointing out that its concerns most greatly focused on Sony. Now, the 277-page document continues to attract criticism as more details get noticed. In a recent report, TechRadar Gaming highlighted one of the parts of the document wherein the regulating body stated the following concern:

Nintendo does not currently offer CoD, and we have seen no evidence to suggest that its consoles would be technically capable of doing so with a similar quality of gameplay as Xbox or PlayStation in the near future.

While the statement is initially and seemingly aimed at invalidating Microsoft’s plan to bring the game to Nintendo Switch (an agreement that was first revealed last year), it should be stressed that the CMA’s main concern in the statement is the “similar quality of gameplay,” the downside of putting COD on Switch via the cloud. However, this point is one of the unchangeable and invariable parts of the situation between Ninetendo Switch and COD since the device is really incapable of handling such a heavy game. This makes the concern insignificant and pointless to raise unless Nintendo plans to release a new console that can technically handle the game.

In a recent interview with The Times, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer expressed sympathy for regulators about lacking knowledge of the matter. 

“Most of the time in my career at Xbox as I’ve met with government regulators, there’s been a real lack of knowledge about the games industry,” Spencer said. “I’ve appreciated spending time with them and in certain cases helping to educate. I think for a lot of the regulators, this is the first time they’ve looked at this industry.”

To this day, the UK regulator continues to be firm about its doubts involving the merger. Nonetheless, the CMA seemingly started to be more considerable after some reports shared it would now consider “other remedies,” a relief for Microsoft as the watchdog formerly suggested the sell-off of Activision’s COD business before it approves the deal.