This is my take as well. The article didn’t shock me because it has been obvious for some time now the direction Sony has decided to go, and there is nothing wrong with it persay because it is obviously working and Sony would quite rightly argue that they are merely serving their customers’ demands.
It is just a nail in the coffin for the group of people who try to portray Sony as different to other major publishers in that they give their studios more creative freedom when the reality is that they are not that much different to your EA’s, Activisions when it comes to making safe bets etc.