@All:
I understand but since Sony is an electronic company first and foremost, it doesn't make sense to me that they would just discontinue their video game hardware in place of a video game service.
You know I don't want to go into arguments of such statements because I don't have the hard numbers to say what makes sense or what doesn't make sense for Sony to do.
But in general being an electronic company first and foremost does not exclude someone from changing business/strategy it just means this is one of their strength. Look at what Nintendo was before Yamauchi made the company expand into electronic entertainment. When certain strengths become obsolete because of technological progress I don't see how it's not feasible for company to adapt. And companies often want to become bigger so expanding into other fields is not unusual.
Also there is the fact that Sony is not just an electronic company first and foremost. Sony is big (how big? Sony's movie division produced the new spiderman movie that had a budget that is about 80 million higher than all of capcom's bank reserves). It has many subsidiaries.
Sony Computer Entertainment being one of them(they also have a music and movies division and of course their hardware division that produces all these electronics). They've acquired Gakai a whole company specialized in streaming technology a while back.
And Sony's Hardware division from what I've gathered has been performing the poorest out of all the divisions in recent years.
So in my eyes(from everything what we know of the current trends) them trying to move away from having to produce specialized hardware and instead of trying to be on everything makes perfect sense. Because you know having every platform(as in every tv, every phone, every future gadget) out there as a potential install base for your service beats having to convince people to buy your box and build a install base on your own.
Sony didn't even make money on the PS3 this gen for a long time. SCE made their big bucks on their games. So cutting out the RnD expenses, distribution and manufacturing is also a big plus.