Brazil has become the second country, after Saudi Arabia (open in new tab), to approve Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. In a decision announced yesterday, Brazil's Council for the Administration of Economic Defense (CADE) approved the merger (opens in new tab) "without restrictions," paving the way for the acquisition to proceed in Brazil.

This is another victory in Microsoft's quest to acquire one of the largest and most high-profile gaming companies, but equally interesting are the reasons provided by the CADE to justify the approval. In a lengthy attachment (opens in new tab), CADE's analysis concluded that Sony's complaints about losing Call of Duty (opens in new tab) were without much merit; Call of Duty has not been on Steam for years (opens in new tab) and is still on Nintendo Switch does not have it.

"The absence of Call of Duty in recent years has not prevented Steam from occupying a leading position in the digital store rankings, especially in the Brazilian market," the CADE report said. as for the Switch, the platform's success in Activision Blizzard games in the platform's success is "negligible," CADE said.

CADE admits that Sony could "theoretically" be harmed by losing Call of Duty (remember, Microsoft keeps saying it will never take the game away from PlayStation (open in new tab)). cade's mission is "to protect competition as a means of promoting the well-being of Brazilian consumers" and not "to defend the particular interests of a particular competitor." Therefore, it does not swoop in to protect Sony from Microsoft's encroachment.

In other words, no matter how much the Microsoft-Activision deal threatens Sony's position, it is a specific risk to one company and not a threat to the entire Brazilian gaming market. This is another Brazilian endorsement, and another hurdle for Microsoft's $68 billion acquisition. Of course, this is not the end of the story. The United Kingdom has yet to complete a detailed study of the merger (open in new tab), and more countries must also make a decision. As for Sony, it will have no choice but to become like Valve and Nintendo.