It make sense. They were on par with Sony at the end of the PS3/XBOX360 era (I would say that Xbox360 dominated the first half where PS did on the second half), so they needed an strong start for the XBOX One/PS4 era, and all the drama about "always online", the anti-consumer focus of their PR, and the lack of games and exclusivities really hurt them.
Why companies are like this? I mean, this is not a matter of redirecting existing resources to the project that generates the most revenue. You are fucking Google, you just can hire more people for those projects.