Gabe Newell says Valve doesn’t need Microsoft’s 10-year Call of Duty deal

Valve head Gabe Newell has casually declined an agreement with Microsoft to put Call of Duty on Steam in the future.

Yesterday, on December 6, Microsoft announced a pledge to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo consoles for the next 10 years. Now, Kotaku reports that Valve received a similar proposition from Microsoft, but Valve boss Gabe Newell turned down the offer from the company entirely.

"We're happy that Microsoft wants to continue using Steam to reach customers with Call of Duty when their Activision acquisition closes," Newell says. "Microsoft has been on Steam for a long time and we take it as a signal they are happy with gamers' reception to that and the work we are doing. Our job is to keep building valuable features for not only Microsoft but all Steam customers and partners."

Then, Newell reveals that "Microsoft offered and even sent us a draft agreement for a long-term Call of Duty commitment." However, the Valve head shares that it "wasn't necessary for us," chiefly because the company doesn't believe in agreements with a party that locks them into releasing games on Steam "into the distant future."

Call of Duty games have been absent from Steam since 2017, with WW2 ending the annual launches on Valve's storefront. 2022's Modern Warfare 2 ended this back in October, bringing the franchise back to Steam for a massive launch, netting publisher Activision a record $1 in just 10 days from launch. 

Valve clearly believes Microsoft will keep Call of Duty on Steam going forward entirely of their own volition. Looking at the evidence of Modern Warfare 2's massive launch after coming back to Steam, and Microsoft pledging to bring Call of Duty games to Nintendo consoles of all platforms, perhaps this belief is well-founded. 

Head over to our complete Modern Warfare 2 gun list guide for a complete up-to-date tracker of every weapon in the game.