If Sony does not reduce the price of the PS3 until Q4 2009 (at the earliest) they should be in a position where their game division is profitable on a quarterly basis; so I don't really think there is much of a risk of Sony giving up on the PS3 in the near future.
Now, a few years from now Sony will need hundreds of millions (and potentially billions) of dollars to fund the research, development and start-up costs of a new handheld and home console. With Sony as a whole being unprofitable, the PSP underperforming in terms of software sales, and the PS2 seeing rapidly declining sales this means that the only place Sony can look for this cash is from the PS3 ... What this tells me is that Sony will (probably) be very reluctant to reduce the price of the PS3, and will try to delay releasing a new system as long as they can.
