Company: Nintendo Co Ltd Adr

Nintendo said on Thursday it will return to profit this year, helped by a weakening yen, after posting its first annual operating loss on shrinking sales of its ageing Wii gaming console and weak demand for its new 3DS handheld device.

Popular brands don’t always stay popular, but some that fall out of favor return to the marketplace in better positions than they held before being written off. See the brands that defied conventional wisdom and came back after everyone counted them out.

The success of the 3-D movie “Avatar” and the popularity of super-realistic video games are bringing virtual reality and its cousin, augmented reality, to the entertainment forefront.

The nation’s oldest operating toy store, FAO Schwarz, is turning 150 years old this year. To commemorate this milestone, the company has assembled a collection of more than 20 iconic toys spanning the decades that customers can view at its Fifth Avenue store in New York until April 10.

Shares in Japanese game maker Nintendo tumbled nearly 8 percent to an eight-year low on Friday after it reported a sharp drop in quarterly earnings and forecast its first ever full-year operating loss, with its game business hit by competing gadgets such as Apple Inc's <AAPL.O> iPhone. 

Nintendo posted a sharp drop in quarterly profit and forecast a bigger-than-expected full-year loss, its first at an operating level, as it battles a strong yen and its games devices lose ground to gadgets such as Apple's iPhone. 

Since 1967, the Consumer Electronics Show has been the place to unveil new technology and products, from the VCR in 1970 to Microsoft’s Avatar Kinect in 2011.

With declining categories such as GPS devices and computers, no new must-have videogame console, and little buzz beyond tablets as the next big must-have gadget, consumer electronics is poised to have a blue holiday.