When Howard Stringer took over at Sony four years ago, they charged him with a hefty task: revitalize the company and resuscitate the brand. He’s been struggling to do so ever since.

Today the New York Times reported the number Sony has put to Stringer’s troubles: $388 million. In the red.

Now it’s no secret that Sony has been struggling. They’re getting pmeled in the video game market and soundly beaten with just about every other product they meant to sell competitively. Sony’s bright light is that they’re a world class company and they’ve made their name on innovative products. They can come back from what’s really a mild slump in their massive sales.

Thing is, they need to turn things around yesterday. I can’t say if that means getting rid of Stringer but Sony needs to take advantage of the fact that everyone is struggling and use their massive resources to turn the brand around.

Shortly after arriving at the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, Sony Corp CEO Howard Stringer had some strong words regarding recent price reduction requests from Activision CEO Bob Kotick.

“He likes to make a lot of noise,” Stringer said. “He’s putting pressure on me and I’m putting pressure on him. That’s the nature of business.” Stringer’s remarks come in response to an interview with Bob Kotick in June, in which Kotick mentioned Activision might seriously consider dropping the PS3 as a platform if costs didn’t come down.

Stringer says the decision to maintain the PS3’s current price comes down to simple logic. “I (would) lose money on every PlayStation I make – how’s that for logic.” Well meeeOW, Mr. Stringer. Sounds like Activisions concerns may have touched a vein. Still, Stringer remains confident that the market will rebound.

Can Sony remain financially stable in our global return from recession? A lot of developers seem to think no, as more publishers join the list clamoring for a price cut. Maybe this is just Stringer’s way of staying quiet until he can drop the PS3 Slim bomb on the world, and that’s when the price would come down. Even with a price cut, though, there’s still the increased cost for console developers on the PS3. If Sony can’t reduce development costs, no amount of logic will work Stringer out of the hole he’s in.