You'd be forgiven for forgetting PlayStation remains an integral part of Sony's business if you glanced through Sony's latest quarterly financial report.

Even scaled down to the firm's Products & Services division – which, along with PlayStation, accounts for Vaio laptops, Cyber-shot cameras and LCD TVs – not a mention is made of its console business or the impact it's had on its 17.9 percent fall in revenues.

TV trials

Across the division, sales fell to ¥732.3 billion ($9.4 billion) for Q1 2011, down from ¥891.6 billion for the same period last year.

More strikingly, the division's operating income fell by more than 94 percent to ¥1.7 billion ($21 million) – but neither a stagnant PSP market not PlayStation 3's continued slump in the US took the blame for this decline.

Instead, Sony said a drop in the price of LCD TVs and a market contraction in the firm's camera business were the main causes.

Priced out

The disappointing results for the PlayStation division come as rival Nintendo – which is suffering slow 3DS sales in all territories bar Japan – posted a net loss of $324 million in Q1.

As a result, Nintendo has slashed the price of its latest handheld by 40 percent, meaning PS Vita's launch price of $249 will be vastly out of step with 3DS's new RRP of $169.99.

As a whole, sales at Sony fell by 10 percent year on year to just under ¥1.5 trillion ($19.2 billion), with the company posting a net loss for the quarter of ¥15.5 billion ($191 million).

[source: Sony (PDF)]