Gaming key to Sony profit rebound: executive

A visitor plays with a Playstation at the Sony Playstaytion exhibition stand during the Gamescom 2011 fair in Cologne August 18, 2011.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Sony Corp's videogaming business, led by its just-launched handheld "Vita", will prove pivotal in returning the company to profitability, Kazuo Hirai, the executive pegged to succeed Howard Stringer as president, said on Tuesday.

But Japan's leading consumer electronics brand remains committed to its TV business despite eight years of losses, Hirai told reporters at a press roundtable at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Sony is "still in the game," added Stringer, who is also chief executive, when asked how it would counter the expected launch of a television by Apple Inc. Apple a decade ago ousted Sony from its perch at the top of the then-booming music-player business, and today outstrips Sony by far in personal and tablet computers.

(Reporting By Tim Kelly; Editing by Richard Chang)