This "rumor" comes from a company called Gaikai, a cloud gaming company. They basically want one gaming console to deal with so they can rake in more cash. To all those who read this, Gaikai is talking out their ass.
The Playstation is most definitely not a cash cow, Sony makes very little, if any profit from the Playstation Division, and not even counting the huge losses they took on in the early days of the PS3's release.
You could not be more wrong on that. Playstation had been propping up the whole of the Sony corporation for years now.
The losses you've mentioned are all part of the business model for Playstation (and I'm fairly sure all consoles) - they're using the "razor blade model". The initial product sold (in this case the console) is done do at a loss - meaning it's sold for less than the cost of manufacture. What the manufacturer then does is to recoup the loss and then run into profit from the sale of accessories (in this case games).
The sale of games makes a good chunk of money for Sony. Publishers not only have to pay a fee just to release a game on ps3, a set chunk of the sale price goes straight in Sony's pocket as well. If it's Sony doing the publishing, they take an even bigger chunk of the sale price.
Games make so much for Sony that they have their European QA department (here in Liverpool) running literally 24/7 to make sure they keep churning them out.
