I don't think anybody should be surprised at this. That being said, I would like to say Sony probably expected it, and while a big, nasty pill to have to swallow, its the long run that matters. SCEA President Jack Tretton commented that the PS3 is over a decade long commitment, and in all honesty Sony (as a whole) has a lot of ways to make money off of it: Blu-Ray royalties, game royalties, accessories royalties, selling you a new HDTV, surround setup, etc.
Honestly, do you think they would've even bothered making the PS3 so expensive if they only had games to rely on for a revenue stream? Sony has more ways to potentially benefit financial from their system than Microsoft (primarily a software and services company) and Nintendo (game company). While certain things are common between the three (spin-offs, merchandising, partnering with other companies, etc), Sony is the only company that can boast non-game hardware (tv's, a/v equipment, etc), a media format (Blu Ray) and content (movies, tv shows, music, etc). Could Microsoft or Nintendo have tried doing a similar feat? No; it wouldn't honestly doesn't make sense for them (keep in mind, Sony is the primary force behind BR, whereas MS is merely a HD-DVD supporter because of the BD+ Fox forced onto the BR format).
Anyhow; just putting my $.02 in before the doomsayers start chanting "Sony's going bankrupt!" or similar nonsense (and its a safe bet that if they EVER were going to do so, the Japanese government would help bail them out in the interests of their national economy). Its going to be quite some time before the PS3 is profitable by itself (last Sony given estimates I saw were 2010), but when everything is said and done, the PS3 should prove to be a worthwhile investment for Sony.