Kaz Hirai: "Holy sh*t, now what?"

New Sony president and CEO Kaz Hirai has begun his reign by swearing in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

What drove the normally calm exec into such an outburst? The size of the job he faces in turning the Sony ship around.

Stock in the company has plummeted in the last year, leading to a Q3 loss of over $1bn.

"I thought turning around the PlayStation business was going to be the toughest challenge of my career, but I guess not,” he admitted.” It’s one issue after another. I feel like ‘Holy shit, now what?’

"We can’t just continue to be a great purveyor of hardware products, even though some people expect us to do that.

"We really need to buckle down and be realistic. I don’t think everybody [working at the company] is on board, but I think people are coming around to the idea that if we don’t turn this around, we could be sitting in some serious trouble.”

Sony’s next big PlayStation adventure begins later this month when it launches its PSP successor, the PlayStation Vita. Japanese sales of the device have been slow, so its uptake in the US and Europe will be vital for the company.