Sony in the red due to quake-hit production

Sony has reported that it made a net loss of 15.5 billion yen (£122 million) for the three months from April to June 2011, with sales declining by 18 per cent year on year.

It blames the chasm in its finances on the earthquake that hit Japan earlier this year, which caused production delays and squeezed component supplies.

It also reckons "unfavourable exchange rates" and "the deterioration of the electronics business environment" have had a negative impact.

TVs down, gaming weird

The worst hit department was Sony's TV unit, which has also revised its sales forecast for the rest of the year downwards.

Sony's computer entertainment division had some interesting news; PlayStation 3 sales are down, possibly due to the PSN hack that took the gaming network down for over a month earlier this year.

However, the outdated PS2 has seen sales remain pretty steady, down by only a couple of hundred thousand compared to the same period last year.

Also weirdly, the PSP handheld console has had a bit of a boom with a 600,000 sales increase to 1.8 million, no doubt due to attractive price cuts and new bundles in advance of the launch of the PS Vita next year.

With regards to the cyber attacks on the PSN, Sony notes, "Most recently, user logins to PlayStation Network in North America have returned to a similar level as before the cyber attacks."