New SCEE CEO: Reeves replaced by Andrew House

Crossbar said:
Not a day to early in my opinion. Not that I think David Reeves was stupid or anything, but he is a person I find hard to relate to and I think that was the case for a large part of SCEEs customers. His presentations at the game conventions in Europe felt awkward to me. I hope Andrew will do a better job.

Here is what he looks like:
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Why would you want to relate to the boss of SCEE?. For example Phil Harrison was a superb pr person but that wasnt his job his actual performance at his job is regarded as shaky. People like Tretton, Reeves shouldnt be asked to front these shows but experts in them fields and pr. Same as Kaz Hirai as far as i've heard he's very good for SCEI etc and people are very impressed etc but he's a wooden public speaker and doesnt capture the youth market.
 
flashboom said:
Why would you want to relate to the boss of SCEE?. For example Phil Harrison was a superb pr person but that wasnt his job his actual performance at his job is regarded as shaky. People like Tretton, Reeves shouldnt be asked to front these shows but experts in them fields and pr. Same as Kaz Hirai as far as i've heard he's very good for SCEI etc and people are very impressed etc but he's a wooden public speaker and doesnt capture the youth market.
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I think PR is part of the job description for any CEO and I´ll take Kaz's "Riiiidge Racer" over the Goethe quote of Reeves anyday, Kaz looks a bit younger as well. Do even japanese people age at all? Kojima still looks like 20. Must be the sushi or something.

Anyway you are right that I am pretty clueless about their management skills. Let us hope House got all the necessary skills.
 
Reeves is writing his own obituary for his time at Sony.

"The lasting legacy is that I took Sony Computer Entertainment through the harder years but still managed to keep PlayStation as a very prominent brand in all PAL territories, both for PlayStation 2, PSP and PlayStation 3," he said.

Reeves is well aware of the recurring criticisms that have dogged all PlayStation formats in the European markets, particularly the high-priced PlayStation 3, yet despite this, the brand has made an indelible mark in the region, he said.

"Europe and PAL markets normally have to launch last and that stirs up a lot of criticism," noted Reeves. "And normally we have to launch with a currency that's quite strong and therefore the price is quite high, and again we get a lot of criticism for that. And we have to maintain that. And that, in the last three to four years, has made it extremely difficult. But even so, we as a PAL market are the leading region for all of those formats, despite those difficulties."

Reeves' role will be taken by Andrew House, former marketing exec for Sony across all regions, who is expected to make the position his own.

"I'm not really giving him any advice at all," offered Reeves. "He's a very seasoned and professional person and I've worked with him in Sony Computer Entertainment before, both in Tokyo and the US. He knows Sony very well. He's going to do it his own way, so I'll just make sure he knows how good the people are in Europe."
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"I'm actually retiring and my ambition is over the next couple of months is to get some rest because it's been a very tough year."
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His wording makes me think there may have been some tough decision makings during the "tough" times that have made him unpopular within the organisation and basically forced him to be replaced. Now a new guy with a clean record will take his role and lead during more successful times, we´ll see.
 
Or he got fed up with the stress, looked at the huge amount of money in his bank balance, and had the sane epiphany 'why the hell am I doing this when I could be doing whatever I like!'
 
Crossbar said:
His wording makes me think there may have been some tough decision makings during the "tough" times that have made him unpopular within the organisation and basically forced him to be replaced. Now a new guy with a clean record will take his role and lead during more successful times, we´ll see.
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I'm not sure if I'm actually reading a touch of bitterness in his words, or I'm projecting my own bitterness about how SCEE treats it's European consumer base into those same words.

I suspect it's the latter, but also hope to a certain extent that it's the former.

After all, this is the same guy who stated before the PS3 launched that the first machines off the production lines would be headed toward Europe. I'm sure that he didn't just make that up on the spot and was led to believe it to be the case, only to have the rug pulled from under him at a later date. And I'm sure he had little input in the decision to launch the "inferior" model in Europe, though obviously he had to deal with the fallout.

Even things like the DS3 taking 6 or more months to get to PAL gamers, with the region essantially becoming a dumping-ground for unsold 6axis controllers from other regions, must have hurt his pride.

I can't help but wonder if the last line in that quote, "...so I'll just make sure he knows how good the people are in Europe" is poinyent. Not long ago he nailed his colours to the mast and catagorically stated that there would be no redundancies in Sony Europe. Is he leaving because he was being pressured to make those cuts?

I hope not. But given the track record of his statements being undermined, it will be interesting to see what happens going forward.
 
Crossbar said:
I think PR is part of the job description for any CEO
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Aside from not making any serious PR-mistakes, most CEO's have far more important things on their agenda than doing marketing.

Marketing department should take care of PR stuff.

CEO's might give a presentation or two once in a while, but in most big companies, PR (except for making sure you dont say the wrong thing) is not something the CEO should spend any time doing, a CEO needs far different skills than being a loveable person to the public.

Which is why you hire marketing people - somebody has to sell your crap.
 
I agree to a certain degree. Most people don´t give a crap about the presentations at E3, TGS or the European Game Convention.

It´s probably just stupid people on boards like this that loves to analyze every sentence from the executives. Take quotes out of context and make fun of them.
We will see that within a month at E3 over and over again.
 
Yeah, pretty level-headed interview. I kinda like it. This line drives me mad though:
"we're very good at managing multiple products against different consumer segments – look at the number of SKUs at Sony Electronics."

That's not necessarily a good thing. Sony Asia alone has more than 1 million SKUs (A friend tried to sell a logistic solution to them). IMHO, it's much better to focus on a few great ones before optimizing the returns using many different segments. The business model and accounting for many small SKUs vs a few sustaining SKUs are very different. They may conflict with each other.

From PS3 perspective, small applications like the Unified Village, Life with Playstation are meaningless. Yet some important areas are getting neglected by Sony (What happened to Dress ? You guys stopped at only a Japan non-game ? I need an app for my wife too you know).

EDIT:
At least this part is up-to-date :)

Q: As well as the PSP Go, your big reveal at E3 this year was the motion control technology. What's been the early reaction to that?
Andrew House: The primary reaction that I had and others we've shown the technology to is that it is the sheer entertainment value that impresses. What came across was that a new new technology could lead to very interesting and entertaining experiences both for the player, and also for the performance gaming aspect. We have have a lot of confidence from a Sony stand point on the right time to introduce new technology and new interfaces, and the goal of the company has always been to do it at the right time, when we can make a difference and be best of breed. What we had at the E3 showing was very forward facing technology, a firm date for launch which is important as it gives us a good lead time to assemble the right sorts of content to take advantage of it. And we demonstrated a very tangible sense of how this will translate into gaming experiences. And those are three critical things. The final point I would make is that it's stunningly accurate in terms of the way it tracks movement. That sounds like an incremental step in terms of motion technology, but it's a huge one in terms of saying 'now it's arrived' and it's really going to change the way we think about how we play games.

Q: How long has the technology been in development?
Andrew House: It's been a while. If you want to track it back the team has been working on that since the days of the original EyeToy.

Q: Is motion technology important in the PlayStation 3's ten-year lifecycle plan?
Andrew House: That's one of the essentials. But the PlayStation 3 is also one of the best Blu-ray players around for high-definition movies and that almost gets lost in the mix. That gives it an enormous sense of longevity, people want the best if they are buying into high-definition entertainment from a television standpoint or from a movie standpoint. That's an inherently long lifecycle and it helps bolster the traditional gaming lifecycle as well.

Q: With Microsoft working on Project Natal, and Nintendo improving its console with Wii MotionPlus, are you concerned about the competition in the motion control market?
Andrew House: I'm not unduly worried and I think the reason for that is that we've done a very good job with the PlayStation 3 as an overall value proposition without any motion control technology. This becomes additive to what is already an incredibly powerful device. It gives a new aspect to the experience. We went into this show with a tremendous software line-up, strong confidence in the platform's power and the kind of experiences that are only possible on PlayStation. This gives us one more extension to that, it helps us build the business in a different direction.

Q: Have you got any pricing ideas for the motion control technology?
Andrew House: No, it's too early to say. We'll take our time with it.
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PS2 had 1 SKU. Wii has 1 SKU. They do well. I don't think markets need to be fragmented so much, at least when the competition is fairly limited and you don't have to target niche demographics to get a foot in.
 
New interview with Andrew House at Eurogamer.

Ellie made me laugh twice. :smile:

I am a bit disappointed in Andrew as he hasn´t tried out the new motion controllers yet. I think it you need to have some passion for your products and be curious.
 
Crossbar said:
New interview with Andrew House at Eurogamer.
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"Eurogamer: When you say "user data", do you mean people writing "PS3 is teh w1n, M$ sux" on the internet?"

Haha, this interview style is awesome. It really needs to become the new standard for interviews instead of the usual kiss ass interviews that don't challenge anyone.
 
What I don't quite understand is why a CEO type has to also be a public face for the company. Why not just take a community manager and let him handle everything involving talking to the press, to the fan-base and so on. This would be so much more effective. He would only need to have the following skills:

- know everything about Playstation products
- know everything about making great presentations
- be able to listen to his fanbase and give good interviews

This person would also do most of the communication on the Playstation Blog, for instance. In Europe it would preferably be a full-time job by someone skilled in a few of the European languages.
 
Arwin said:
What I don't quite understand is why a CEO type has to also be a public face for the company. Why not just take a community manager and let him handle everything involving talking to the press, to the fan-base and so on. This would be so much more effective. He would only need to have the following skills:

- know everything about Playstation products
- know everything about making great presentations
- be able to listen to his fanbase and give good interviews

This person would also do most of the communication on the Playstation Blog, for instance. In Europe it would preferably be a full-time job by someone skilled in a few of the European languages.
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Usually people want to talk to the man/woman in charge directly.

The PR person's role is to prep the interviewer, guide the interviewee and, if appropriate, steer the interview.

Otherwise, something really entertaining might happen... like Steve Jobs storming out of a live TV interview in 1998. :)
(I can't find that video interview online :|)


RobertR1 said:
It's entertaining. I rather be entertained than listen to pre packaged PR bullshit routinely.
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It's a different take. I kinda like it. However it does not mean that the only alternative is "pre packaged PR bullshit". Someone creative, smart and people-oriented can conduct an entertaining and informative interview using other approaches.
 
betan said:
It's childish and unprofessional.
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Ellie is very professional she is writing for eurogamer.net not gamesindustry.biz.
She knows her role and takes it seriously. She also shots some good questions in my opinion.

I think Andrew was embarressed that he hadn´t had a go with the motion controllers yet and he should be.
 
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