Sony is a big company, which is involved in a lot of things, including gaming through its PlayStation brand. In charge of this area is Sony Computer Entertainment, which has various outlets in all major territories, with one of the most important ones being Europe, which was led by David Reeves.

Led is the correct tense, as the executive who has been with the company since 1995 has now officially retired from his position, being replaced by Chief Marketing Officer Andrew House, who will be invested in his position on May 1. Here's what Reeves had to say about his departure:

“It has been a wonderful ride with PlayStation. 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.”

But, after the announcement regarding the retirement, a rumor popped up, posted by VideoGames 247, which stated that Reeves had actually resigned from his position in order to take up a senior position at Realtime Worlds, the developer of Xbox 360-exclusive Crackdown and the upcoming APB online game scheduled for the PC.

When asked for comments on this rumor, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe declined the “invitation,” revealing its policy to not discuss hearsay information and speculations with the media.

All in all, though, David Reeves has had a tremendous influence on gaming on the PlayStation consoles, even in general, and it is quite sad to see him retire from the industry. Hopefully, we will know more about his situation in the following weeks.