I think the deal will hurt the industry but only because Sony is too small to compete with Microsoft and frankly never stood a chance. they are a small player that should probably spin off their gaming division and sell to Apple because right now they can't compete with Microsoft. If Ms can't buy big publishers they will go for smaller pubs like square enix, Ubisoft, and capcom. All are under $10 billion.
What happens then? Instead of losing one game, Sony loses 15. All resident evil games, street fighter, final fantasy, ass creed, far cry, and whatever trash Ubisoft is making. That isn't good for PlayStation gamers either.
I don't like the deal because i hate Microsofts approach to gaming but i just don't see how it gets blocked in a capitalist system. Its a free market. They have the money, they should be able to buy it. If apple enters and buys Activision they would be allowed to. For that reason, so should Microsoft.
Lastly, Sony has no one but themselves to blame. They spent millions over the last ten years moneyhattimg third party exclusives, cod dlc, modern warfare reboot exclusivity, fucking guns in destiny. Why is final fantasy even exclusive? Its a third party game available on PC. Why block Xbox? Its chicken coming home to roost for Sony and i for one wont shed a tear for a company that paid to keep content off of another console. I love Sony when they give small studios like housemarque a big budget to go to the next level but deathloop and ghostwrite tokyo were made by a massive publisher that was eventually sold for $8 billion. They didn't need the money.
I agree that The deal will probably hurt the industry but thats because Microsoft sucks making video games. A future where ms is the only big player alive will probably suck. They make all the wrong choices but it's not like Sony wasn't following them with cross gen, GaaS, cloud and subscription trends. Doesnt matter If is Microsoft or Sony or Apple or nvidia running the show, the good old days of video games pushing boundaries instead of mtx are long gone.