PlayStation goes AWOL as Sony's Products & Services division revenues fall 18% to $9.4 billion

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)]