"He runs a developer there and he's worked with both Sony Computer Entertainment and Nintendo over the years, and he says that what he respects the most about Nintendo is the incredible continuity they have in the form of a core group of individuals that has now worked together for over 30 years.

"Well, we on the PlayStation side of the business have only about 20 years together now, but I'm really looking forward to the next decade or two with Shu [Yoshida], Andy [House] and the other amazing talents of Sony Computer Entertainment, and I think by the end of it we'll even have my friend in Kyoto telling everyone how our values - held strongly over a great period of time - had such an influence over the world of games."

"The three musketeers are back," he said, referring to the way Sony Computer Entertainment had appointed his colleagues Andrew House and Yoshida to senior positions in recent years, while allowing him to develop the PS4 itself.

"One of the small results of that - but huge for me - was that it provided a further boost to the engagement... the policies of engagement with game developers around the world."

That nucleus of "amazing" personnel, he said, is what he hopes will lead people to compare Sony's impact to Nintendo's in decades to come.