But what I know is that liabilities or debts are usually long-term and that they are accounted for every financial results. So as long as the company is profitable during the financial year, then their debts no matter how big, doesn't matter.
In financial reports, liabilities are split into "current liabilities" and the rest. Current liabilities are everything that will have to be paid within the next accounting period, which for Sony is a fiscal year beginning at the 1st of April and ending at the 31st of March. That $55B is explicitly the accounts and debt that come due and have to be paid back during the current fiscal year. Note that most of it isn't actually debt -- it's accounts due to their suppliers that need to be paid back. In addition to that, they have some $70B of long term liabilities.
Sony is forecasting profits for this financial year. I say why not, after firing 10,000 employees, selling some properties which incurs fix expenses, etc.
Being profitable is measured before paying back debt. If you are $500 in debt, earn $100 this week but spend all of it on paying back your debt, you still have no money, are $400 in debt, and you made $100 in profit this week.
Sony will be profitable this fiscal year, but the amount of profit will be absolutely dwarfed by the short-term debt and obligations coming due. They will have to take billions of debt just to finance their operations. Aka, they have no money.
Don't forget Sony Insurance and Sony Bank which are both profitable.
While Sony Financial Holdings is doing better this year than last, it's not exactly blindingly profitable. It's expected to pay a dividend of 25¥ this year -- that would make Sony's share $500M. Not exactly enough to balance their book.
Sony is fine. Whatever the amount they have spent on R&D for the PS4 has already been accounted for in their previous financial year.
This would be correct. The R&D has been spent already, now we are talking about the financial impact of manufacturing a few million consoles for launch.
If they plan to invest more for next-gen, Sony has the money to do so.
No, they really, really, don't. They are in the red. Their current operations are funded by short-term debt. And accordingly, the ratings agencies have punished them for that, rating their debt just above the level where bankruptcy risk is considered significant.
But it's never about the money.
It's always about the money. I'd like to launch a superpowered console. I cannot afford to pay for it, and no-one would be dumb enough to loan me the money. So I can't. Neither can Sony.
MS could, but I doubt they'd want to.
It's about which strategy will make more business sense. Sony can make the most powerful console and take loss for each one sold again just like last gen. IF, in their perspective, it's the approach that will make more business sense.
Business strategies have to be grounded in reality. If you cannot afford to purchase something, and no-one will lend you the money for it, you're not going to be basing your strategy on selling it. Even if you'd calculate that you could make a nice profit on it in the next 5 years.
Sony is fine as a company. They only need to trim the unprofitable business and expand on its profitable ones.
Sony still has enough fat to cut that it will probably be fine. However, they can no longer throw money around and worry about it later like they used to. You can do that when you have the cash in your pocket or good enough credit. Sony has neither.
but apparently as you have said it "the idea that the processing power in a box is a function of company size or that the only way to sell a box with a decent amount of power is to lose billions of dollars" is widespread enough in this thread that I start to think I am in the minority here 
