Dave Reeves - best Playstation president and PS3 ambassador?

[City17]

This past week, news regarding the retirement of one of Sony’s most notable executives spread throughout the Internet. Dave Reeves has been one of the most vocal executives at Sony pushing the PS3 aggressively in Europe. Reeves delivered the PS3 in Europe successfully, managing to stay neck-in-neck with the competition.

I received a press release earlier this week from Sony indicating the retirement of Dave Reeves and the appointment of Andrew House to fill the responsibility. Reeves joined Sony back in 1995 and contributed to the sales of the PSOne, PS2, PSP and PS3. Reeves was the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) overseeing nearly 106 counties.  

In his farewell press release, Reeves stated:

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.

I feel that Dave Reeves is probably one of the best Sony execs to maintain the health of the Playstation brand across Europe. Under his care the PS3 was able to stay toe-to-toe with competitors such as Microsoft. Currently the sales of the PS3 are close to that of the Xbox 360 despite the fact the system came out nearly 16 months later.

 

Some would say that Europe has a strong brand loyalty towards Sony, but that can also be said for the US. However, at the end of the day, Reeves managed to deliver and that is what truly counts. 

When many were speculating that Sony would drop the price of the PS3, Reeves responsibly tried to manage expectations by attempting to explain the business decisions. He also clued us in on exclusivity deals with third party developers such as EA in the past. He has also been a integral part in fostering the casual brand within the Playstation division with the EyeToyand Singstar.

Andrew House, the Chief Marketing Officer of the Sony mothership will be taking over as the President, CEO of SCEE. Andrew House may be able to contribute greatly to the SCEE with his extensive marketing experience from the Sony Corporation side of the house. However, one thing is for sure, we will all greatly miss Reeves and hope that he will find retirement relaxing and enjoyable.

 

http://gamer.blorge.com/2009/04/20/dave-reeves-best-playstation-president-and-ps3-ambassador/