Reeves to retire from SCEE

David Reeves has announced his plans to retire from Sony as president of SCEE at the end of the month.

He will be replaced by marketing boss and former SCEA man Andrew House.

Reeves’ last day will be April 30th, after almost 15 years overseeing and helping build the PlayStation brand across the launches of the PSone, PS2, PSP and PS3.

He joined SCEE in 1995, where he was responsible for establishing and managing the regional offices for the PlayStation firm in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He moved back to the United Kingdom in 1999 and four years later was appointed president and COO of SCEE.

Reeves commented: "It has been a wonderful ride with PlayStation. I never got to visit all 106 countries but managed 66. 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.”

Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment, added: "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.

"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 endeavours.”

Reeves will be replaced by Andrew House, who takes over on May 1st.

House is currently chief marketing officer and group executive of Sony. He joined the firm in 1990, working in corporate communications for five years.

In 1995 he was assigned to the marketing and communications division of SCEI, contributing to the marketing and promotion of the original PlayStation and its games. In 1996, he was promoted to the position of marketing VP at SCEA. After that he oversaw the launch of the PSP and PS2 formats in the region and also grew his remit in 2000 to include SCEA’s Third Party Relations and Developer Support divisions in order to grow relations with independent developers and production partners.

He took the CMO role in 2005 as part of Sony’s wider acknowledgment of the relevance of the PlayStation business to its overall operation in anticipation of the PS3 launch.

I’m delighted to return to the PlayStation fold and excited to take on this new challenge,” said House.

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.”

Hirai added: I’m very happy to welcome Andrew back to the PlayStation business and to work closely with him again. 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.”