Microsoft has just announced that it is entering into an agreement with Nintendo. Thanks to this new deal, we can soon expect to see the latter’s gaming devices to run Xbox titles like the massively popular franchise, the Call of Duty. So here are all of the details.

As per the official announcement, the American tech giant signed a binding 10 year legal agreement to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo players. For those unaware, the latter is a Japanese giant for both its gaming hardware like the Switch and software like the Mario and Legend of Zelda series. The announcement also added that “We are committed to providing long term equal access to Call of Duty to other gaming platforms.” 

Microsoft had also offered a similar deal to Sony in the recent past. Now, the company is signing a new deal with the Switch handheld console maker. So now, Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty franchise will be making its way Nintendo consoles soon. Notably, the new deal with the Japanese company could also be to ease regulators of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Following the acquisition, Microsoft had faced a lot of opposition after buying the gaming studio behind the COD. This lead to the company facing backlash from its rivals like Sony, since it reportedly posed a threat to the industry.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook has “secretly” signed an agreement worth more than $275 billion with Chinese officials, according to a new report from The Information. It adds that Apple is promising to help develop China’s economy and technological capabilities.

The five-year agreement was made when Tim Cook visited China in 2016 to quash a host of regulatory actions against the company. For its claims, the report is citing interviews and internal Apple documents.

The multibillion-dollar agreement included quashing of a number of regulatory actions against the company with exemptions and enabling access to the Chinese market, in return for significant investments, business deals, and worker training in the country.

Tim Cook personally forged a five-year agreement with the Chinese government during a series of in-person visits. Apparently, several Apple executives were concerned about bad publicity in China and the company’s poor relationship with Chinese officials, who believed that Apple was not contributing enough to the local economy.

It is alleged that Tim Cook “personally lobbied officials” in China over threats made against Apple Pay, iCloud, and the App Store. Attempting to mollify authorities, Apple announced investment of $1 billion in Didi Chuxing. Shortly after, Tim Cook, along with Apple COO Jeff Williams, and government affairs head Lisa Jackson met senior government officials in Zhongnanhai, the central headquarters of the Communist Party of China.

The company has also promised to invest “many billions of dollars more” than its current expenditure in China, including on new retail stores, research and development facilities, and renewable energy projects.

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Recently, the Chinese smartphone maker, Huawei, agreed to pay the US Chipmaker Qualcomm a large sum of 1.8 billion US Dollars to settle their long disputed patent infringement lawsuit. Since then, both companies have signed a new long term deal despite the rising tension between the US and China.

For those unaware, Qualcomm currently holds patents on various key smartphone components and generally licenses its products/IP for revenue. Huawei had been one of its customers but had allegedly withheld payments since 2017. Back in 2019, the latter finally agreed to pay 150 million US Dollars for every quarter for using the former’s technology up until 2018.

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After the settlement, Huawei and Qualcomm have now inked a new agreement that will license the latter’s patented technology to the former. This deal is also a sort of a win-win scenario for both sides, with the chipmaker already seeing the benefits as its stock value has risen to record heights just by the deal. Huawei also benefits from the deal by gaining access to various Qualcomm technology, especially key components for smartphones, which is quite crucial after the company lost its chip supply from TSMC due to US sanctions.

Notably, Qualcomm CEO also stated that the new deal is “consistent with the framework of our licensing programme and incremental to the partial payments received from Huawei under the interim agreement in prior years”. So, we will have to wait and see as to what more this new deal might bring to the table in the near future.

UP NEXT: Huawei MatePad 10.8 with 2K display, Kirin 990, M-Pencil stylus launched for 2,399 Yuan (~$342) 

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Yao Yanzhong, Vice President of JD Group and President of JD Communications Division as well as Ni Jiayue, Director of Honor Domestic Sales and Service Department held a meeting and have signed an agreement for 5G smartphones.

As per the agreement, Honor’s first 5G smartphone, which is coming to the market later this year, will be sold through JD.com in China. With this agreement, both the companies have reached a deep cooperation for 5G services and JD.com will provide users with a full-service one-stop solution for Honor 5G products and will also support its development.

As for the marketing collaboration, both the companies will strengthen online and offline omni-channel cooperation and aims to reach the target consumer groups. They plan to continuously introduce more accurate marketing that directly touches people’s hearts.

Further, it adds that for the cooperation related to the smartphone business, both the companies — Honor and JD.com will create new product activities through the in-depth exploration of user needs, and help Honor reach a new height of business growth.

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Honor and JD.com have set up many records in the Chinese eCommerce market and with this new agreement, both the companies are expect to showcase solid outcome in terms of sales and market share, especially with JD’s 11.11 Global Good Things sales festival coming next month.

While nothing has been revealed about this upcoming Honor 5G smartphone, reports are making rounds since past few weeks that the company is gearing up to launch the Honor V30 and V30 Pro smartphones which will be powered by the company’s own Kirin 990 octa-core flagship chipset that has built-in 5G modem. It is being speculated that the devices should be get launched later this month and should go on sale by 11.11 Singles’s Day sale in China next month.

Up Next: Xiaomi is expected to launch its Mi Watch COLOR smartwatch powered by Mi Wear OS later this month in China

(Via)

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