REMEMBER the Christmas when you couldn't buy a Nintendo Wii in the shops? Mums and dads literally fought over the right to buy the little white box and kids howled when they couldn't find one under the tree on December 25.

It all seems so long ago, especially for Nintendo.

The company has just recorded a $288 million loss for the three months ended June 2010, compared to a profit of more than $500 million in the same period last year. Ouch.

The company blamed the unavoidable lifecycle for consoles which has the DS entering its twilight years coinciding with a slowdown in Wii sales.

It's the Wii that could be the problem, with a new version not due until 2011 at the earliest this could be a tough Christmas for Nintendo re-sellers (although the 3DS should bring some cheer in the New Year if a March on-sale date is confirmed). The strength of the Japnese yen isn't helping, either.

Nintendo sold 3.15 million DS units during the period and 3.04 million Wiis.

Another Japanese giant, Capcom, is also going through a tough time.

Profits for the June quarter were down 90 per cent, mainly due to under achieving games like Lost Planet 2 which failed to take off.

At least Capcom's foray into iPhone gaming has been a notable success (including Resident Evil) which bodes well for the future.

Conversely Sony seems to have turned a corner. Improving hardware sales have finally stemmed the red ink that's covered the corporate balance sheet in recent years.

Sony sold 2.4 million PlayStation 3 units, up from 1.1 million a year earlier. PlayStation Portable sales were down from 1.3 million to 1.2 million units (wonder how many of those were PSP Gos?), and PlayStation 2 sales remained constant, with 1.6 million units sold, the same as the first quarter of of 2009.