We're kind of in new territory here. We've never seen one of the big three this desperate. That's not a knock on MS. They've been smart. They've got the warchest to fight this battle with pure money if they need to, and they needed too.
That's b/c what MS's doing with XBO is not what you normally do with consoles. It defies the traditional model. It defies the traditional model of a healthy system, to bank everything around two months of the year. And the only reason they can do it is b/c of their warchest.
Getting real for a moment, it's essentially a form of temporary price-fixing. But that's not the part of actual controversy (for the moment). What's really at work here, is anti-competitive actions. That's because MS is essentially using their wealth of money to attempt burying other competitors. They can afford to take extreme losses on product their competitor (Sony) can't due only to their deep pockets. That's great from a consumer perspective; you end up with what we're seeing now (and this is probably just a mild example of what they COULD do in the future).
It's bad for corporate competition though b/c it essentially cements the company with the most money out of the gate as the one to win, even if their product is inferior. And even if that product
isn't inferior (very few people will genuinely say XBO is subjectively inferior to PS4; objectively it is however, from a power POV), they are still going about competing in a way that technically violates competition laws in the U.S. But the onus isn't on the Supreme Court to call them out on that, and that may only be the case if it's prolonged. Two months isn't prolonged; it's a short sprint.
That's why you see MS stressing the price rising back up in January (which I doubt will happen, but they'll probably remove all the gift card bonuses and most of the free games and free XBL offers certainly); because they know where this can lead them if they stick to it for the long run. They aren't stupid.
So yeah, from
your perspective, it's all good because you, as a consumer, are on the direct receiving end of some sweet deals. But from a corporate end, it's murky waters. It's somewhat similar to the things Nintendo pulled during the NES/SNES gens, but not very damaging (if damaging at all) to actual developers and publishers, and not necessarily vindictive on MS's part (especially if it is, again, only temporary).
But it can potentially be seen as anti-competitive in some way.