Yes. Originally I had first 10 million being sold at a lost, but refactored that downwards to a safer number - PS4 took some 8 months to get to 10 million.
Last time they knew that loss wouldn't last long. If you can't be sure of a quick price reduction, you're facing significant drops in profitability.
If the previous $60 loss was expected to last two years, it may well have not happened.
PS3 was an absolute money pit because of its loss leading! Sony were willing to take a significant hit for a long period, and it wiped PS out. By being far more conservative this time, and only taking a short-term loss in order to squeeze an unexpected but highly valuable 8GBs at launch, PS4 has made many monies. Had Sony put in more hardware and taken a large loss on PS4, they likely wouldn't be better off in terms of market share or revenue but would be down on profits. PS4 was well engineered at the sweet spot between power (market desirability) and cost.
The issue isn't whether a loss leader is possible or not, but how long a loss leader will be around. If a $50 loss can be eliminated within 6 months of launch, it's not so bad and high probability. If the hardware can't be cost reduced by $50 for 18+ months after launch, it's a helluva lot more expensive. Rather than just saying, "it could happen," speculation should revolve around identifying which components are likely to significantly cost reduce in the short term to enable a loss-leader. If no components can be identified, probability is slim.