philharrison posts (Subscribe to this feed)
Atari focused on downloadable PSP games
by Jason Dobson 
{ Dec 8th 2008 at 9:30PM }
Hardly a shock, especially given Harrison's notion that kids of tomorrow will turn their noses up at the idea of owning physical media. However, without any of those big-budget, single-player games to fall back on we doubt we'll be busting ghosts or assaulting Dark Athena while waiting for the bus any time soon.
Homesick: Phil praises PS Home
by Jason Dobson { Dec 5th 2008 at 1:15PM }
While also "quite impressed" with Microsoft's efforts around the social networking buzzword, Harrison noted that he feels his former employer "will have a very successful platform." We just hope that when he gives Home a congratulatory slap on the back, he does so with enough gusto to actually push it out the door.
Harrison: Atari is the best opportunity in the industry
by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 6th 2008 at 7:00PM }
This week has seen numerous moments where Infogrames' new CEO David Gardner and Harrison, as the new Directeur Général Délégué, have said all the right things. Giving the appearance that Atari is a salvageable brand is great, but showing some profit is always a good first step.
Listen to Phil Harrison talk about his big move
by Majed Athab { Mar 5th 2008 at 11:30PM }
Infogrames attracted Harrison with giant magnet
by Scott Jon Siegel { Mar 4th 2008 at 1:25PM }
According to Gardner, the future of Atari and Infogrames rests in the field of online gaming, a risky new venture for the company that Gardner is optimistic Harrison will be able to assist in. In addition to the new online focus, Gardner hopes that the company can continue to attract talent, and aims for a healthy mix of both industry veterans, and fresh young faces hoping to innovate. They better hope that magnet's got a lot of pull left in it, as Atari's messy history is naturally repellent.
Phil Harrison is new president of Infogrames ... wow
by Alexander Sliwinski { Mar 3rd 2008 at 11:00PM }
Harrison's fancy French title (which we're sure to use every chance we can) isn't going to protect him from the hard road ahead. The plan is apparently for Harrison and Gardner to turn Atari into "a leading online game company." Despite Gardner's belief that Infogrames has a "strong financial foundation," its going to take a lot of "show us" over the next few years before Atari gets off the D-list. But damn, is getting Harrison on the team a good start.
[Via PS3 Fanboy]
Phil Harrison now officially with Infogrames, Atari
by Majed Athab { Mar 3rd 2008 at 8:20PM }
As this comes as quite a surprise to many, Phil backs his decision by stating, "This is the perfect time to join Infogrames and help shape the future of Atari." Can the old Sony heavyweight do it? Can he help restore the sinking ship that is Atari? We always want to see success, so we're hoping for the best. Score one for France.
Breaking: Phil Harrison resigns from Sony Computer Entertainment
by Scott Jon Siegel { Feb 25th 2008 at 6:23AM }
Taking his place will be SCEI president and group CEO Kazuo Hirai, who will assume Harrison's duties on top of his own. It's unknown at the moment whether Sony will begin seeking out a replacement for Harrison, or whether Hirai's full-time responsibilities will engulf those of the former Worldwide Studios president.
First joining Sony back in 1992, Phil Harrison helped launch the first Playstation console, and has since played a major role in SCE's business, including presenting Sony's landmark keynote at last year's GDC. In a public statement, Harrison states that he is incredibly grateful to his "Playstation family," and will continue to support the platform and company in the future.
Sony's Phil Harrison: Wii's audience plays hard to get
by Griffin McElroy { Feb 22nd 2008 at 11:30PM }
At yesterday's "Lunch with the Luminaries" panel at GDC, five of the planet's most prestigious gaming industry figures had the opportunity to sit down for light snacks, civil discourse, and, of course, to flame their competitor's consoles. At least, that's what Sony exec Phil Harrison had in mind, as he warned EA Blueprint's Neil Young that the Wii is unfriendly territory for third-party developers -- due to Nintendo's overwhelmingly successful games on their own home console, everyone else can only hope to market their games to "only 40% of the installed base."
Young didn't deny this claim, but retorted that the development of their most recent game for the Wii, Smarty Pants, was "very easy to build very quickly" and "fundamentally much more fun" to create -- apparently, more fun than it was to actually play. Have third-party developers resigned themselves to living in Nintendo's shadow, prompting them to fire out "easy to build," mediocre titles? We don't think they quite understand -- if only 40 percent of Wii owners are buying your games, it's because the other 60 percent know better.
Microsoft says Sony 'underestimated' Home challenges
by Jason Dobson { Sep 21st 2007 at 6:00PM }
However, despite being pushed back, Sony executive Phil Harrison, who debuted Home earlier this year at the Game Developers Conference, seems steadfast in his belief that the initiative remains on target for a public beta roll out in late November/early December, with a commercial release to follow in 2008.
Will Home, whenever it's finally released, be anything like the online utopia promised by Harrison in March? It's all guesswork at this point, though Thompson notes interest in seeing "what they wanted to deliver against what they can actually deliver, because I know they generated a lot of interest based on what they said last year." We'd love to hear how the service is shaping up, should anyone currently enrolled in the beta like to come forward.
Read - Microsoft disappointed
Read - Harrison confirms public beta
Japanese Home vid shows off the ability to dress like Phil
by Colin Torretta { Aug 6th 2007 at 6:30PM }
That's right, you can run around the Home world in a Ratchet hat, a custom blue Phil Harrison t-shirt, and Jack Tretton's pants. Now who amongst us can say we've never dreamt of that? Right now, it's unknown if this is just a Beta feature or something that will go into the full release this fall. We can only hope it stays in, since dressing up like Kaz Harai and running around yelling 'Riiiiiidge Racer!' is just too fun of an idea to ignore. So which sexy Sony executive would you dress up?
Phil Harrison talks Home, 30fps Madden
by Nick Doerr { Aug 1st 2007 at 7:00PM }
- About Madden on PS3 running at 30fps: "It would concern me if the platform was incapable of doing it, but we've proven the platform is capable of doing it, so it's not a PlayStation 3 issue. I'm trying to be polite." He talks about the Edge dev kit and how Sony's own titles are running at full 1080p with 60fps, basically dodging the more obvious answer: EA Sports are lazy.
- When asked if Home were going to be shipped with completed features and basically everything that Home could possibly have upon launch, Harrison replied: "There will be features that get added over time, it's not going to be everything that we've ever talked about at the beginning of the service. I'm being very clear we never intended for that to be the case, either, but we have a clear road map of where and how and when we're going to be adding functions and features."
[via N4G]
Sony leads Develop Industry Excellence Awards in UK
by Alexander Sliwinski { Jul 26th 2007 at 2:48PM }
Sony Europe won the Grand Prix award at the UK-focused Develop Industry Excellence Awards held in Brighton, England for "capping 12 months which have seen the firm deliver a new hardware format that has inspired developers around the world to make cutting-edge next generation games." Sega won for being the industry's "Publishing Hero" and Motorstorm won "New Console IP accolades." And apparently, although we can't quite confirm this, the event was neither a roast, nor was the Hasty Pudding theatre company anywhere to be found.A little less confusing is that Traveler's Tales won "Independent Developer" for their work with Lego Star Wars and Realtime Worlds won the "Innovation Award" for the "thrillingly original" Crackdown. (While we love us some Crackdown, nobody who isn't on their third glass of Cabernet is going to call it "thrillingly original.") But we shouldn't be so mean, the Develop Awards – judged by 100 "industry experts" – are focused on UK and Euro companies so the pool is intentionally narrowed. Check out the full list of those winners by following that Read link.
Phil Harrison pledges support to Epic and their Unreal Engine
by Nick Doerr { Jul 23rd 2007 at 2:15PM }
Phil also apologized to Epic indirectly, admitting that Sony did not support them as much as they could have in the beginning, but are taking steps, like those mentioned above, to rectify the situation. With the Unreal Engine 3, optimizing the use of the SPU's is the crucial task. Harrison explains the importance of that aspect: "The benefits that it yields to end developers, whether they're writing exclusive titles or multiplatform titles, is that the performance on PS3 goes up exponentially - and it will make for a much better game experience." Let's just hope that lawsuit between Epic and Silicon Knights ends in a way that won't attack such lofty goals for massive damage.
[via Games Industry]
Phil Harrison talks GT 5 Prologue, Trophies, and more
by Colin Torretta { Jul 20th 2007 at 6:00PM }
When it came to Trophies, he mentioned that they are actively looking at creating 'retro-Trophies' for older games like Resistance and Motorstorm. It wasn't clear if this would mean you would have to replay the games to get the Trophies, or if they would be automatically awarded based on your past performance -- either way it's very cool to hear Sony is working on this. This is something fans have been asking for since they heard about Sony's Trophy idea and is a pretty exciting idea.
Phil also (kind of) talked about their response to Microsoft's bizarrely popular Gamer Scores. He danced around the question a bit, clearly not wanting to reveal too much information but he did give a hint that they're going to avoid a point based system. It's going to be interesting to see how they're able to great a non-point system -- maybe they'll reward you with a number of Loco Rocos depending on your score!
