The words of Sir Howard Stringer, Chief Executive and Lead Turnaroundologist at the listing company, where no amount of superficially revamped game consoles and Christmas holidays seem to be able to brighten Sony’s outlook.

The quote, from Italy’s Il Sole 24 Ore, is a sort of sad double entendre: The question is set up as a broad query about the state of the consumer electronics industry, but Stringer’s answer sounds more like an off-record confession about his own company than a cool assessment of its industry. From Sony’s point of view, the CE industry hasn’t started to turn around; from Sony’s point of view, Sony hasn’t started to turn around: whichever was meant, these aren’t the most reassuring words to hear from the head honcho of one of the largest electronics companies in the world.

Anyway, cheer up Howard! People will buy your consoles to play games and sim-kill civilian hostages for Christmas! It’s how things are. [Reuters via Digital Daily]