Tag Archives: Phil Harrison

PlayStation mega-boss Kaz Hirai has admitted that he had no idea former Sony worldwide studios president Phil Harrison was moving to Atari until the deed was done.

“At the time, I didn’t know he was going to Atari,” Hirai told ThreeSpeech. “It was obviously a surprise when he told me he was going to move on.

“But, you know, it’s a small industry and he’s obviously remained in it and from his perspective, it was a great thing to move on to a new challenge. On his last day, I was in Tokyo and I called him, and said I was sad to see him go but, at the same time, I was very happy for him to take on some new challenges.”

Harrison decided to leave Sony in February to take on Infogrames’ presidency.

Full interview through the link.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Infogrames president Phil Harrison has admitted he’s a 360 fanboy. Or not. We can’t quite work it out.

“I’ve always recognised its capabilities, so it’s not like I’ve woken up and gone, ‘Ooh, I’m a real 360 fan now.’ I’m in a different part of the industry so I have a different role to play,” he said.

“It’s been a good experience learning about other formats, not just 360 but Wii and DS, and understanding what it’s like to publish games on those platforms and create for those audiences. I’m finding it very intellectually and creatively challenging.”

Harrison was head of Sony’s worldwide studios in his last job. The inner turmoil now he’s moved must be immense.

Talking to the MTV multiplayer blog, Infogrames president Phil Harrison would not say one way or the other if Alone in the Dark PS3 will feature Home and trophy support.

“If the libraries are available, then yeah, I would hope that the PS3 version can take advantage of that,” he told the site.

Alone in the Dark will be available on 360, PC, Wii and PS2 next month with the PS3 version scheduled for “later this year.”

By Mike Bowden

Atari rolled out the red carpet in London last week for its pre-launch showing of Alone in the Dark, flying in a tired-looking Phil Harrison from New York to intro the game and give a few interviews. Talking to the big man is always a pleasure, and this time especially so, given his recent move from SCEE where he’d been ensconced for the past 15 years.

Harrison was in the UK to talk about the Eden action-adventure, but did answer a few questions on what it’s been like to join ex-EA boss David Gardner at Atari, the future of the firm in general, affirmation of his belief that unconnected single-players games are tomorrow’s dodos, and how he’s been busy making a bunch of new friends.

After the link.

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Updating live from the Atari UK Alone in the Dark event in London. After the link.

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Speaking to Gamasutra, Atari games boss Phil Harrison has admitted that Alone in the Dark may well be the final “core” game Atari makes.

“I don’t see that we’re going to be making huge-budget, single-player games in the future,” he said.

“Now, that doesn’t mean that we won’t have ambition to do really incredible games that have high quality, high execution, and high innovation, but they won’t be one-player, narrative-driven, start-middle-end games.”

We’re interviewing Phil later today. Anything you want us to ask him?

According to this Next-Gen report, Sony’s named Phil Harrison’s replacement as president of SCE worldwide studios as Shuhei Yoshida, currently SVP of US studios at SCE worldwide.

“SCE WWS has been developing global hit titles, sharing resources and know-how within SCE Group since its foundation, and we will reinforce our software business by further enhancing coordination among the studios under a new leader,” said SCE boss Kaz Hirai.

“Under the leadership of Yoshida, who has proven track record in managing creative talent, SCE WWS will accelerate the software development for the PlayStation 3 and PSP platforms and vigorously expand the gaming market.”

Infogrames boss David Gardner has told GamesIndustry.biz that the name “Infrogrames” may be ditched in favour of “Atari”.

“I’d like to consider that, I think that would be the final mark of the transformation from Infogrames to Atari,” he said. “We have a new board of directors, a new management team that’s less than a year old – so yes, it’s really continuing.

“We like to think of Infogrames, instead of being the tired, old company, we like to think of it as the best-funded, best-branded, most energetic start-up in the history of computer gaming.”

Plenty more through the link, including quotes from everyone’s favourite games warrior, Phil Harrison.

Infogrames has offered to buy the remaining Atari stock for $1.68 per share. The French firm already owns 51 percent of the ailing game-maker.

Atari signed a new distribution deal with parent Infogrames last December, to last for the next three years. We assume the mov to take complete control of the brand is all part of Gardner and Harrison’s future-forging antics.

Yep, you can watch it. It’s almost like being there. Phil’s looking nice in his shirt and jumper, and David Gardner’s sporting a black polo neck. This was shot in New York earlier this week ahead of an Alone in the Dark press presentation.

Phil Harrison’s given his first speech as president of Infogrames in New York, ahead of a press presentation of Alone in the Dark.

Explaining why he quit his former role as head of PlayStation development, he pointed to “the things that excited me the most, the things that turned me on as a gamer, and as a business person, and as a creative person were the future of our industry, the connected community experiences – all the things we’re starting to see emerge that are really exciting players around the world.

“And those are the things I started thinking about in terms of creating a company or getting involved with a company to really shape and direct a business towards that future.”

Full thing through the link.

Here. A very worthwhile GI piece that tells you everything you need to know about what future-creating BFFs Phil and David have to look back on as history in the Atari brand. Any article that begins, “The original Atari Inc was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney as an arcade engineering firm, dealing in pinball machines and the primordial arcade videogame market,” has to be worth a read.

Not a future, but the future. Following news late last night that Phil Harrison is to join Infogrames as president, CEO David Gardner has got all excited about the new Atari.

“In terms of European leaders in the games development industry, I’ve always wanted to work with Phil,” he said. “He’s going to partner with me to build the future. He’ll be the most senior guy responsible for all the content and network-centric material, all the investments that we make in games.”

In effect, then, Phil Harrison is the future. We knew there was something about him.

Following last night’s revelation that Phil Harrison has now been appointed president of Infogrames, CEO David Gardner has been quick to dispel any conception that the company and its game-specific subsidiary Atari are in any way on thin ice.

“We have a lot more cash than start-up companies do,” he said. “So I view ourselves as a well-branded, well-financed start-up. That’s the position we’d rather be in than a poorly funded, disappointed, broken down old company.”

As reported late yesterday evening, Harrison is now the software head of the French firm, following a highly public departure from a 15-year career at SCEE last week. Expect to hear plenty more on the topic throughout the day.

As predicted (sorry, we said it was going to happen this morning), Phil Harrison has been confirmed as the new president of Atari’s parent company, Infogrames.

Harrison resigned from SCEE last week, where he enjoyed a 15-year career that culminated with him heading up Sony’s worldwide studios as president.

The press release can be found both here and after the link.

Update: Loads of quotes from Harrison and his new boss David Gardner here and here.

Update 2: Minkley’s got some reaction from Eden’s Alone in the Dark team in New York. Here.

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We found him. Phil Harrison was at the 1 million PS3 party in London last night, and wasn’t giving many clues about what happened to cause his resignation or where he was going after Sony.

“He was completely avoiding saying anything about where he was going,” said one reveler. “He just laughed off the fact that people think he’s going to Atari by saying something like, ‘You shouldn’t believe everything you read on the internet.’”

Another mole described Harrison as “coy”.

“He just wouldn’t talk about [why he'd left Sony], and we were pretty much instructed by Sony just to leave him alone and let him have a nice evening. It was the first thing [UK PR] said: he doesn’t want to talk about leaving or anything to do with it and just let him get on with it, sort of thing. He was chatting to everyone. He wasn’t hiding, or anything.”

Harrison, president of worldwide studios for Sony, quit the company this week. He’s worked at SCEE for the past 15 years. Talk of a move to Atari quickly emerged, but, as you can see, nothing’s been confirmed as yet.

Here. There’s an awful lot about Phil Harrison in that feature, and it’s an essential read after the man resigned from SCEE this morning. We still don’t know why or where he’s going, but a move to Atari’s been rumoured. We’ll let you know as soon as we do.

Expect this to be the first of several editorials on the departure of SCEE front-man Phil Harrison throughout today and this week. It’s essentially Colin Campbell’s take on the resignation (derived, it seems from a recent and “agreeable” lunch).

“He’s done launching consoles; so he won’t hop over to a direct Sony competitor; nor, I think, will he join an established third party publisher a la Peter Moore,” said Campbell, a view in contradiction to a just-published GI story that says he’s off to Atari.

There’s stuff in there on what Colin thinks Phil’s departure from Sony means to the company as well. Take a look.

According to this, Phil Harrison – just resigned from SCEE – may be on the way to join former EA chief David Garner at Atari. Gardner has been making plenty of noise in the last few weeks about rejuvinating the ailing Infogrames pet.

We’ll just have to see, we guess.

Just in from Sony. Phil Harrison – president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, to give him his full job title – has resigned. Kaz Hirai, president of SCEI, is to take control of Sony worldwide studios, Harrison’s job up to this point.

“The past 15 years at Sony Computer Entertainment has been the defining journey of my life so far,” said Phil Harrison. “I am grateful to all the PlayStation family for their incredible support, guidance and friendship. It has been a privilege to serve as part of the team and be inspired by them on a daily basis. I am so proud of everything PlayStation has achieved and will continue to support its future in every way I can.”

No reason has been given for the departure and SCEE has said that it will be making no further comment on the situation. Full press release after the link.

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