"After 15 memorable years, I'm going to retire at the end of this month," said Reeves. "It has been a true pleasure working at Playstation, pushing the boundaries of the gaming industry."

Reeves said he decided to speak at Capcom's annual event because of their long-standing relationship with the publisher.

"I'm here talking to you because of the relationship between Capcom and Sony that has been cultivated to create some of the greatest games over the years and it's a relationship we will continue to cultivate."

Reeves says that the relationship between Capcom and Playstation goes back to 1994, the year the Playstation launched.

"Against everyone's advice, we created a disc-based console and launched it into the powerhouse of Nintendo," he said. "This relationship has continued through to the Playstation 2 and to the latest generation with the Playstation Portable and Playstation 3."

Reeves said that it is this relationship between the two companies that brought him to Capcom's event that night to give what would be his last official presentation to the press.

Most surprising that evening, was Reeves self-deprecating comments about the Playstation Portable

"We know that our own Sony line-up has not been up to expectations, but tonight is a prime example of how that has been rectified," he said. "Monster Hunter Freedom Unite sold 3 million units in Japan… showing what can happen when you bring a top quality product to the Playstation Portable."

Reeves wrapped up his short presentation by expressing his pleasure at working in the industry for so long.

"The industry has changed beyond recognition throughout the 15 years I've worked in it," he said. "It will always be an industry I will be proud to be a part of."

"I don't think it will be next year, but in three to five years it will become dominant on the market," Reeves told industry site GamesIndustry. "The legacy will be that people will see a tortoise and hare situation. In a way, in the end it will be a dead heat. People will say PS3 took a while to get going but it really caught up very quickly and confounded many of the critics from the first year."

So David Reeves thinks that the PS3 will be dominate in 2012 or 2014. Meaning?

Meaning by Reeves most liberal estimate, it could take the PS3 almost eight years to become dominate in the market — leaving the console with a little over two years left in its proposed ten year life-span to rule the roost.

Shame that David Reeves is retiring tomorrow. He has been the gift that keeps on giving.

PS3 to be dominant in 3 - 5 years, says Reeves [GamesImdustry]

"Monster Hunter Freedom Unite sold 3 million units in Japan, showing what can happen when you bring a quality product to the Playstation Portable," David Reeves, president and chief executive officer of Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe, said. "We feel we can attract this sort of audience elsewhere with this game if we can get them to play it ad-hoc."

So Sony plans to bring a demo of the title to both UMD and for digital distribution sometime before the game hits North America on June 23, he said. He added that Sony will also be releasing a "Monster Hunter bundle" in Europe, but didn't detail what exactly that would entail or if it would be released elsewhere.

Admirable, but rumors swirled that Reeves was repaying society by taking a "senior position" at Crackdown developers Realtime Worlds.

Realtime wha? says Reeves. "I'd never ever heard of Realtime Worlds until someone asked me about them a couple of days ago," Reeves told industry site Develop. "I can honestly say no, that rumour is not true." And we can honestly say as head of Sony Entertainment Europe, David Reeves should know major European third party devs.

According to sources, the site claims that, rather than retiring to spend his days on a beach sipping fruity drinks with umbrellas in them, David Reeves will instead be taking up a "senior position" at Realtime Worlds, the developers behind Crackdown and the upcoming APB.

Contacted for comment, SCEE would only say that they do not comment on "rumours & speculation".

Rumour: David Reeves moving to Realtime Worlds [VG247]

"I'm very happy to welcome Andrew back to the PlayStation business and to work closely with him again" said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment. "I'm confident that the skills and expertise Andy has gained over the years working as Sony's CMO will contribute enormously in leading the PlayStation business in Europe/PAL countries and regions and to bring new initiatives in managing the business in the coming networked era."

House has been with Sony since 1990, staring in corporate communications in Sony Corporation (Japan), where he toiled for five years. By 1995, he was working on the marketing for the original PlayStation and game titles. House went on to work in marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, helping to establish the PS brand and later devise launch strategies for the PS2 and the PSP.

Since 2005, he has worked at Sony Corporation as Chief Marketing Officer handling corporate marketing across all of Sony's business.

"I'm delighted to return to the PlayStation fold and excited to take on this new challenge," House said, "I have strong ties to the interactive entertainment industry and I believe there is huge potential for further growth of our business in the Europe/PAL countries and regions, particularly in the area of networked entertainment. I'm looking forward to working with everyone at SCEE and with other groups in Sony to help achieve this potential."

"It has been a wonderful ride with PlayStation," said David Reeves in a SCEE statement. "I have just two things to say on leaving: I want to thank all of those people who have supported SCEE and me personally in the past 14 years; you have been magnificent! Secondly, I am going to spend my time now trying to repay society for all I have taken from it. If your children are having physics lessons at the local school or wondering why their ski instructor is very elderly, your car mechanic has a bad back, or the social worker keeps bringing you PSP games, then it could just be me! Good luck to everybody at SCEE and everybody who continues to support us."

Reeves was responsible for managing over a hundred territories in Europe/PAL, and according to Sony Computer Entertainment president Kazuo Hirai, Reeves was key in building up a strong Sony base in Europe/PAL territories.

"David's contribution in firmly establishing the PlayStation brand and expanding the business in Europe/PAL territories in his 14 year tenure at SCEE is immeasurable," said Sony Computer Entertainment President and Group CEO Kazuo Hirai. "I would like to express my sincere gratitude to David for the many accomplishments he made to the PlayStation business and wish him the best luck in his future endeavors."

Reeves will be replaced by Chief Marketing Officer Andrew House, who will take over the reins on May 1.

The Cell being, of course, the thing that runs the PS3. The Cell currently residing in retail PlayStation 3 consoles is a 65 nanometre one, but will soon - as we already know - be replaced by a 45 nanometre chip. But how soon? Reeves says the replacement will take place "probably in middle of the year".

A 45nm chip means the PS3 will use less power. It also means the machine will run cooler. And finally - and most importantly - it'll be cheaper to manufacture. Up til now, every time Sony have reduced production costs on the machine, they've pocketed the extra change.

But by the middle of next year? They'll need a price cut by then, and this is probably just the thing to enable such a move.

'We simply have to suffer,' says Sony Europe's gaming chief [The Guardian]

"We simply have to suffer a little," Sony Europe honcho David Reeves tells The Guardian, "go down in market share and mind-share. It's like Ali vs. Foreman — go eight or nine rounds and let him punch himself out. We're still standing, we're still profitable and there's a lot of fight in us. I don't say we will land a knockout blow, but we're there and we're fighting."

Sony's not only fighting, but learning from its competitors. "We've learned from Nintendo how to grow the market and move from handheld device to device — they've done it brilliantly," Reeves says. "And we've learned an enormous amount from Microsoft, too."

As the economic climate worsens, Reeves concedes that customers will be shopping on price. Sony is thus continuing to make the PS3 competitive as a game console and as a multi-media device.

Reeves also tells The Guardian why Sony didn't offer a pre-holiday PS3 price cut: "If we'd cut the price, lost another billion dollars, we might have had a huge Christmas but it would have been followed by a huge loss. The company could have thought: 'Hmm, I'm not sure I want to be in this business at all.' But we've shown Sony this is still a good business to have."

The bright spot: According to The Guardian, Sony has racked up 1.1 million in Killzone 2 pre-orders.

'We simply have to suffer,' says Sony Europe's gaming chief [The Guardian via VG247] [Pic]

That's Reeves' "armadillo" strategy, also known as the "value added" tactic that the PlayStation brass have been touting for many months.

"You have to be hard, and then you will come out when the sun comes out," Reeves tells Eurogamer. "If, as an industry, we can get through the next six to seven months, we're going to find a massive uplift in September and October. I'm very optimistic about it. "

Sony's all about turning a profit on the PlayStation 3 business right now, a strategy seemingly partially employed by not giving developers "a paper bag full of cash" and a plan to establish its own stable of original game properties.

"At the beginning, we had very few IPs and relied on other people for exclusivity," Reeves said. "Now, our strategy is to have 15 to 20 IPs by the time we get to 2009, 2010. We don't have to go to Capcom or Take-Two and ask for an exclusive. And I don't think we could afford it anyway."

But what about the potentially more profitable, but still underserved PSP, David? After a meager 2008, Reeves says we can expect the line-up this year to be "two or three times stronger than it was last year." I know what you're thinking — "two or three times" zero is still zero. Hey, don't forget God of War: Chains of Olympus!

Sony's David Reeves [Eurogamer]

Speaking with GI.biz, a Sony spokesperson has said Reeves feels that the restructuring processes Sony will undertake will be mostly confined to the electronics business, and won't affect the PlayStation Group.

Of course, that flies right in the face of word last night that the games division would be faced with "headcount reductions and other restructuring measures", but then, it wouldn't be the first time David Reeves made public comment without knowing what exactly was going on in the dark bowels of Sony HQ, Japan.

Sony job cuts unlikely to affect games division [GI.biz]

Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studios, teases "new titles and innovations that will connect and expand the PlayStation experiences" on the PSP. But that's about all the love the PSP gets from developers and SCEE execs. I mean, David Reeves, president of the European arm seems mostly worked up over the PSP selling in "incredible numbers."

And what about the PlayStation 3, Sony's area of focus?

Reeves says that, once the company heads back into the black, "we can move forward at a rate of knots." Most of the internal excitement comes from games like Killzone 2, Heavy Rain, MAG and God of War III, but there's plenty of super secret stuff, "more big titles that we have not even announced yet," teases Yoshida.

Hmph! That better mean "Team ICO game that is almost done," Mr. Yoshida!

“What are you looking forward to most on PlayStation in 2009?” [PlayStation.com]

No, we are not going to go down in price on PS3 – neither are we going to go down in price on PS3 in spring time either. Absolutely not, whatever you might have heard to the contrary. Our strategy is very much value added.

That doesn’t mean we are going to add pieces of software – we might add original ideas to the machine. What we want is to make the machine value for money.

The majority of that will come as a disappointment to those still waiting to dip their toes in the Sea of PlayStation 3. That last bit, though? About adding "original ideas"? That's something to hold onto, and as the 360 is showing with Netflix (and indeed, the PS3 in Europe with PlayTV), adding "extra shit" to your console can go a long way to appealing to new buyers.

That said, lower prices probably do more.

Action ‘Station [MCV]

In an interview with Mcvuk.com, Reeves put some of Sony's market growth strategies down on the table. Besides expanding into Russia, the Middle East, and South America, they're also looking into newer demographics and increasing their software tie ratio. At the end, Reeves threw in a juicy nugget about Sony's continued stance on manufacturing quality hardware.

"We also grow the market through new products – some work, some don’t, that’s just the Sony way. And on that point, another thing we have committed to for supporting market growth is putting out quality hardware – you don’t grow the market by putting out shoddy machines. So we try to make sure that PS3s have a failure rate of just two to three per cent, which is very low by industry standards."

The Xbox 360 has proven, to an extent, that hardware quality doesn't matter in the end. Price does, ultimately. What say you, Kotaku? Would you rather spend $100-$200 less on a PS3 if it increased the chances of your system breaking?

Action ‘Station (MCVUK)

SCEE boss David Reeves has told Dutch TV station RTL "We're certainly not planning to cut back in personnel at all. Half of our personnel are in the development of the games, that's an investment. We're not scaling down at all".

Fairly definitive. Then again, David Reeves is often either a habitual liar or habitually uninformed when it comes to company-wide statements, so take that with a grain of salt.

Reeves: No plans to cut European staff [GI.biz]

Speaking with MCV, the Sony Computer Entertainment boss responded to questions bugging him about a second-generation Sony handheld with:

No, there are currently no plans for a PSP2. I go to Tokyo quite a lot and no one has referred to it – I think they have their hands full at the moment.

So...either Sony Japan only talk about the PSP2 behind Reeves' back, or they're too busy firing thousands of people? Not the most upbeat of responses, David! In fact, that's the most down-beat No Plans Watch we've done in months.

Thanks for bumming us out on such a lovely day :(

Sony rules out ‘PSP 2’ [MCV]

Reeves tells MCV that, despite Microsoft's claims to the contrary, that Europe is still Sony country. Continent. Whatever. And even though the PlayStation folks are going to be "more aggressive" in 2009, reports of a price drop in Spring of next year are highly exaggerated.

“No we are not going to go down in price; neither are we going to go down in price on PS3 in spring time either," Reeves told MCV. "Absolutely not, whatever you might have heard to the contrary."

Reeves says not to expect its price drop history to repeat itself on the PlayStation 3, reiterating Sony's "value add" strategy and working harder to get to a break even point on its this-gen console.

“We’re relying on the fact that the industry will keep growing and while we might have a comparatively smaller share of the market we will have higher sales," Reeves added, noting that the PS3 is "tracking where PS2 was at the same point in its life."

Sony: We’re ahead of Xbox [MCV]

We’re very, very happy and comfortable with our PSP business... And I don’t think we’re necessarily in the shadow of DS – they have different types of games and we have a different positioning for PSP which is not just about gaming, but Go Explore and everything else that comes with it... So we’re very very happy with its progress and the more and more we go to publishers with it the more they are coming on board.

Keyword: Happy. Just look at David Reeves. That man is THRILLED.

Action ‘Stations [MCVUK via CVG]

We have to accept more and more that platform holders themselves cannot have exclusives unless they're given millions and millions of dollars not to develop a particular game for one particular platform.

But for developers, and you could take someone like Quantic Dream for example - a great game, it takes a lot of time to develop, they need a little bit of funding, external development. In exchange, it's exclusive - that works. So exclusivity possibly with developers is more likely that exclusivity with publishers.

In other words, don't expect something like Metal Gear Solid 4 to happen ever again. Ever.

Sony: Publisher exclusivity probably "a thing of the past" [GI.biz]

I think that just as we got a massive blip up [in hardware sales] with GTA IV — which was not exclusive — we’ll get exactly the same blip up with Final Fantasy... I know it [FFXIII] will look great on PS3 and — it’s up to Microsoft to clarify this — it’s still exclusive in Japan.

Never mind that Reeves works in Europe, it's what's happening in Japan that counts. That's the stronghold! David Reeves is here to defend it, dammit.


Reeves shrugs off FFXIII on 360 saying, “It’s still exclusive in Japan” [VG247]