Today, David Reeves retires after 15 years at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. He spent a good proportion of those as president, steering the company through some of the trickiest events in its history - the launch of PS3, the loss of market leadership and the dead goat fiasco, to name but a few.
Over the years Reeves has been generous with giving interviews to Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz and our friends VG247. He's spoken more frankly and openly than most of the executives we get to talk to. He's also come up with some metaphors and allegories which can only be described as amazing.
Here, we bring you a collection of Reeves's best ever quotes. If you're reading this, Mr Former President: thank you for the memories, but more importantly the quotes, and best wishes for the future.
On the delayed launch of PS3 in Europe:
"It's rather like taking a bottle of soda water and we've shaken it so hard over the last six months that when we take the cork off, it's just going to explode. I think that's a better way of looking at it than to say the delay is disappointing. It's not - it's really been beneficial for us." - March 2007
On why the PS3 not selling out at launch is a good thing:
"We don't want secret shoppers to go in there and say, 'Ah, it's not out of stock, therefore it's not selling.'" - March 2007
On market leadership:
"PlayStation 3, you will see, will be far and away the winner when you look at it by March '08. They really, really will. It's something that is going to be a slow burner, and suddenly it's like a tsunami; it will just overtake you." - July 2007
David Reeves, yesterday.
"The last few weeks have shown we are clearly number two in the market." - January 2009
On planes, battleships, cars, tanks and swords:
"If you're fighting in a war that's, say, Boeing versus Airbus, it's almost like battleship against battleship and you're fighting from 15 miles away. If you're fighting in the car war, it might be that you're fighting in tanks and you're one kilometre away. In the videogame industry, if there's a war, if there's competition, it's almost like hand-to-hand fighting, but it makes you sharper.
"You want to have a sharper sword, you want to have a sword that feels just about right, and everyone is very sharp, and what they're doing is they're looking for high ground, low ground where they can get an advantage. The winner is the consumer and I think that's great." - July 2008
On the success of Xbox 360:
"I would say in Continental Europe it's about dead." - July 2007
On whether Sony has appeared arrogant in the past:
David Reeves during the ill-advised Rhythm Nation years.
"I think they have... To an American perspective - no, because the difference in cultures is you have to go, 'Ra-ra, I'm the best.' We in Europe, and especially the Japanese, don't necessarily accept that. You have to say, 'We're doing our best, but we're not the best.'" - July 2007
On what consumers think when they choose PS3:
"'I know I'm not going to have to ring up the customer careline saying I've got three red lights.'" - January 2009
On Xbox 360 getting exclusive GTA DLC:
"It's just a question of money. If Microsoft wants to pay USD 50 million just for that... Then I would say they're quite desperate." July 2007
On what Bob Dylan would make of the console war:
"And don't speak too soon, for the wheel's still in spin, and there's no tellin' who that it's namin', for the loser now will be later to win, for the times they are a changin'." - August 2008
On the decision not to offer the 80GB PS3 in Europe:
"The difference between 60GB and 80GB is not really necessary... We didn't want to complicate things, we wanted to have one model." - July 2007
On whether the 80GB PS3 will be offered in Europe:
"I don't know that any other hard drive configuration is even planned." - May 2008
On offering the 80GB PS3 in Europe:
"The 80GB hard drive hit a price - a procurement price - at a point where we said, 'Yes, we'll take it now.'" - July 2008
On PlayStation Home:
"It looks a lot better than it did." - July 2008
On the lack of PSP software:
"To solve the problem - if there is a problem with PSP - we need to have better and more original games." - July 2007
"It's like in the circus - you've got to keep all the plates up, you know? So the plate we'll be working on now will be the games on PSP." - August 2007
David Reeves, with his gently wizened eyes and his gaze like molten chocolate.
"Hand on heart, would we like more PSP games? Yes, we would. We really would." - May 2008
"Do I think the need for better and more original games has been met? No, I don't." - January 2009
"I'm not going to stand here and tell you we've had it all our own way since we launched the PSP. We know that [the software line-up] has not lived up always to expectations. But... That has been rectified." - April 2009
On whether he wishes publishers produced more big titles for PSP:
"I worry about it, but it comes back to how thin they have to spread the butter... They can only place their chips on so many slots." - January 2009
On why PSP owners were leaving their handhelds at home:
"They said - particularly females - they said it's a little bit heavy." - August 2007
On whether the PSP will ever come with a hard drive:
"I think it's definitely possible later, yes." - July 2007
"It's still possible, but it's going to be later rather than sooner." - January 2009
No relation.
On being an armadillo:
"We're protecting ourselves with a very hard shell to get through the next one or two years of an economic situation. If you're experienced, you know you have to go into that mode - it's like being an armadillo. You have to be hard, and then you will come out when the sun comes out." - January 2009
On Sony's goals for 2009:
"The most important thing... Is for us to start making money." - January 2009
On PlayStation 4:
"I have never even heard it mentioned." - January 2009
On saying farewell:
"I may be leaving the industry, but as long as it continues to pursue the goal of exciting and inspiring people, it will be an industry I will always be very proud to have been a part of." - April 2009
"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." - April 2009
