Capcom's not the only company who wants to carve the Monster Hunter franchise into the collective consciousness of the gaming public. Sony will also be pitching in to establish the franchise in PAL territories.

One of the biggest figures in Sony - especially SCEE - is David Reeves. He's been around on top of the Sony Europe food chain for quite some time now, but as of April 30 of this year, he's going to be stepping down. With his leaving, what's he got planned to do with his life? He's going the civic route and will be doing social work (i.e. giving away free PSP games to the sick and elderly?).

After posting their financial report and showing a decline in hardware sales, SCE Europe boss David Reeves had quite a lot to talk about - PSP future hardware, current PS3 hardware, their game library (or the lack thereof), etc. And so says he about why the PS3's high price is worth it: "PS3 has got all the games, it's free to go online, it's got a Blu-ray player. I know I'm not going to have to ring up the customer careline saying I've got three red lights."

Sony's currently standing on shaky ground, with the impending announcement of layoffs just around the corner. SCEE, however, remains a safe haven. Sony's European games division has given word that they have no plans to reduce their headcount.

Let it not be said that I only write depressing news.

All eyes are on Sony as they prepare to announce their restructuring plans in the next few days. Word is that they'll be cutting out some products from their hardware lines. While SCEE's David Reeves is sure that the PlayStation Group is safe, the mood is definitely tense as the clock ticks down to Sony's announcement.

Sony had a lot of people worrying last month when it announced a major company reorganization, which will lay off 16,000 workers. The company has announced that they don't have any plans for further restructuring. Hopefully this means the PlayStation Group is in the safe zone from the big axing.

The PlayStation group dodged the axe that fell on Sony a few days ago when it was announced that the mega corp will lay off 8,000 employees. Bigwig David Reeves says that Sony Europe will not be part of the big scale down. More after the link.

The rumor mill has chucked out another one on the PSP 2.

The rumor now goes that Sony will be introducing the PSP-4000, the successor of the PSP Brite, in late 2009. This will be followed with the release of the next-generation PSP 2 "later."

It's only been a couple of months since the PSP-3000 hit stores, so another new PSP isn't on the cards yet. That's what SCEE boss David Reeves told MCV in a recent interview. Aside from spouting the standard Sony denial line, Reeves also conceded that yes, software is the handheld's major weakness. More from Reeves after the jump.

While SCEE is keeping mum about their supposed leaked plans for 2009, David Reeves allegedly also took steps to make sure that the rest of the staff keep mum as well.