Phil Harrison No Longer President Of Atari

Kotaku writes; Last year, in a major coup for the fledgling company, Atari managed to hire former Sony Worldwide Studios boss Phil Harrison to serve as President. Now? Now he's no longer President.

According to a statement made by Atari as part of the company's fiscal year report:

[badkolo]

oh jesus

[TOO PAWNED]

nevermind.

[Winter47th]

When he was at Sony he sure did nothing but to hamper it down, after he got his ass evicted things turned out for the best, Sony promising the best E3 ever one year after he quit sure brought up a lot of whistles.

The guy's simply not suited for the gaming industry, and he sure as hell's no leader.

[thereapersson]

Actually as far as I can remember, he did a lot of good for the company. I'm not sure what basis your comment serves...

[Winter47th]

He's so good he quit his tiny little job to move on to the best company in the industry, Atari, cool. He must've realized he's not fit for that kind of responsible leadership.

Compare the age of Ken Kutaragi with this peep and you might get somewhat of a clear picture about the difference between a good management, leadership and a shiver just waiting for a spine to crawl up to.

All he did was talk, while he could've dealt more cards to move forward and earn both developers and consumers, that's not exactly my idea of "a lot of good for the company".

[Tomdc]

HAHAH how on earth do you know what the man did and didnt do? Your basing your arguments on presumption and with the use of a flawed argument. He moved on for his own personal reasons, he wasn't fired, there are more things to life than the prestige that comes with ones job! He could have been bored at Sony and was seeking a more exciting job or a whole number of differen things, prehaps family related if his has one.

He was a great public figure head for sony, id like to see someone such as yourself do half as well :P

[PotNoodle]

Phil was with sony from the start of the playstation.. are you saying he failed on the PS1 and PS2?

[Winter47th]

Honey bun tuts, just because you're not a professions Macgyver doesn't mean people don't suck at their jobs. The guy was giving a specific task, setting the global product strategy, he failed, we lost more exclusives than ever before, Microshafts money's part of the problem sure, but only 'cause the developers felt insecure with their investment, it's now the third year in PS3's life cycle, two were his, one year after he left, things shined like never before, Sony's been making more strides than for a long time.

@Deathrow, I was referring to his time as appointed president of Sony's new 2005 global structure 'till Feb. 2008.

[staub91]

Come Back Phil....

I miss seeing Phil presenting at Sony's E3 Keynote.
He was always really down to Earth and pretty funny. Jack Trenton on the other hand is pretty lame IMO.

[Winter47th]

He basically wanted to turn the PS3 into another Wii, and Wii Sports is a true next-generations game in his opinion, eh, not really, but it's fun, that's all. And pulled a stunt on SCEJ.

5 days later he quit/got the shaft, they must've realized he's not the right man for the job after all and gave him the clean way out, and judging from where he's been, to where he went, to what happened today at where he chose to be, it sure looks like it.

http://www.gamesindustry.bi...

He's a good talker, nothing more. Can't believe some are calling for him back just because he 'talked well'.

[Christopher]

Highly doubt that had anything to do with it. Atari is selling off publishing rights for their games in Europe to Namco Bandai. Ghost Busters just happened to be in the early stages of getting through the red tape for publication and was dropped so that Atari wouldn't waste any money on something Namco Bandai would be doing very shortly. I doubt they care very much about the game in Europe anymore considering they won't be making any money off of it.

Selling off publishing rights in Europe allows Atari to cut staff and trim away a lot of the work considering the number of countries and different laws to work with while still reaping some reward for having primary publishing rights to a lot of games.

[pain777pas]

Come back to Sony Phil. Do a reveal aat E3.

[The Lazy One]

does anyone else think phil harrison looks creepy?

[jessehaysfl]

yeah I think this is a bummer, man.

[ChickeyCantor]

In that picture...he looks like an albino.
Anywho...that was fast ?

[jessehaysfl]

yeah this is slightly worrying. hope ghostbusters is good....

[arsenal55]

Come back to Sony Phil!!! I miss you!

[Legendary-Status]

lol... hahaha..

Yeah I Like Phil 2 He should come back to Sony... even Knowing he still has a job to play at atari

I forgot didnt Atari make Rush 2049? If so I love that racing game they need to do another one and revamped it with the next-gen engine...

[ThatArtGuy]

Atari Games made the Rush series. Atari was the console company. they split during the 80's. Atari Games is owned by Midway now.

[PS360PCROCKS]

wait what? Atari the console developer and the game developer aren't one in the same? Or did I read your comment wrong?!

[TheMART]

He just fack things up and doesn't deliver. Look at freaking Playstation Home... Overpromising&underdeliver ing. YOU'RE FIRED!

[jessehaysfl]

actually if you'll read another of my news posts you will see that he was the president of infogrames now that they are gone he has moved into this "new role"

http://www.n4g.com/NewsPend...

and the proof of him actually being the head of infogrames and not atari?

http://kotaku.com/362957/ph...

Mart Im not saying your wrong but I just think maybe a bit misinformed, Although that being said I don't work for atari so I don't know for sure that what Kotaku reported is 100% true either.

[Oner]

Great info, links & proof Jesse, but as for Mart ~

The uninformed know nothing but misinformation only to propagate their misguided views as fact...

[SSCOOLCHEA]

this kid mart is either stupid or he is a genius making ps3 owners always having to defend themselves .

[BigPete7978]

Ouch. Well I seriously hope he would go back to Sony. I actually liked him a lot at Sony.

[Marty8370]

He's no longer the president of Atari, sure. But he's not going anywhere, he still has a job/role at Atari.

[TheMART]

Yes its about the same. We don't want you anymore as the most important person of our organiation. We won't fire you directly, but put you away on a non important function we just created and say you're going to 'assist' in doing some vague stuff no one can measure.

And because you get frustrated Phil about doing nothing but sitting at your desk, you'll quit yourself in some time. Thats called helping someone out through the backdoor. Silent, but effective!

[Cajun Chicken]

Whaaaatt?!?

[Zhuk]

I can't blame Atari for firing him after what he and his cronies at Sony did to the PS3

[OmarJA]

M$ fired 7000 employees last month, hopefully you won't be next.

[saimcheeda]

Hopefully M$ Fire u too!!

[OmegaSlayer]

Come back to Sony.

[gamesblow]

Don't be surprised when he shows up at Konami's presser as "1" of "2" special guest next week.

[ChickeyCantor]

What, you still alive?!

[TOO PAWNED]

??? Why would he be there Gamesblow? Is he moving to Konami?

[faisdotal]

Lies.

[BlackIceJoe]

I am not sure why Phil would be at Konami's panel unless this is to be some kind of collaboration. Mr. Harrison always had some great ideas for the industry and games in general. If Phil was the speaker then this could be what Konami was talking about saying you would remember Konami's E3 panel. May be it is a return to Phil's game idea of Johnny. If this is real I can't wait to think what could come out of this. Good stuff I bet.

[gamesblow]

We don't know just yet... We know that Phil is no longer with Atari and he has been in talks with 3 "major" studios. Konami being one of them, Nintendo being the other. We don't know who the 3rd is.

I'd bet on seeing Phil at Konami's presser. Just saying.

[OmarJA]

I really hope he come back to Sony one day.

[madpuppy]

Phil Harrison and Billy Corgan look like they have been separated at birth.

[SpartanGR]

I wont bash the guy but i cant deny the fact that things are far better for sony after he's left

[dogmeat eater]

That actually is making a profit, to a gaming company thats been dead for years? Thats what I want to know.

[dogmeat eater]

Now Phil Harrison is out of a job. Why did he ever move to atari anyways? They probably have a networth of maybe $500,000. Every game they've made in the past 8 years has been a flop. They make really bad games. I wonder how atari is still managing staying alive? Especially in this economy.

[PS360PCROCKS]

No it has not. Quit over exaggerating. They're not that bad.

[dogmeat eater]

Lets just hope Sony doesn't give him his job back.

[OSIRUSSS]

Man, I never knew what The observer from Fringe did in his spare time. He ran Atari.

[mcm]

Phil quit his job for personal reasons (family). He was the voice of Sony for many years and really cared about the Playstation brand.
He didn't want to turn the PS3 into a Wii. He wanted to be able to offer a wide variety of games to all demographics. Look at the sales figures of big titles like KillZone 2 and you should see that the hardcore gamer can't carry the console alone. One thing that Phil understood was that variety is what moves consoles. Games like Fat Princess, Little Big Planet, Pixel Junk Eden and the like are a reality because of Phil's research. He understood that it takes more than big titles to weather the storm. What would it be like if we had nothing to play in between each big title?

Where is Gran Turismo? Where is Tekken 6? Where is Final Fantasy? Wher is God of War? What were we suppose to play while we wait on these games?
Yo say he was a good talker and that's all! Did you shadow him at Sony during his daily routine? Pure fanboy speculation there. Thinking you know it all when you know nothing! Even if all he did was talk, he was the ultimate hype man!! His hype sold consoles!! When was the last time a Sony executive spoke on the PS3? was it last E3? Phil use to be in the news constantly, he took his job seriously! He didn't just show up at E3 and try to sweet talk an audience. He showed up at every major PS event and talked the talk. That is dedication and he will always have my respect for taking his job so serious.

Last thing: Whenever I am at a family get together or a college party someone always breaks out a Wii. Girls and families love the Wii. Phil just wanted a piece of that magic.

[neogeo]

worthless man. never did 1 good thing for Sony. Never did 1 good thing for ATARI, he needs to work at a fast food joint, hope he does not screw that ip as well. Sony would be finished if he had stayed on. he is a ball less little girl and bad for gamers.

[mcm]

Not one piece of evidence to back up the claim. Same as people bashing Krazy Ken, but without his vision the PS3 would be less powerful than the competition and your games would be compressed to hell to fit on a DVD.

Fanboys never cease to amaze me!

Fanboys think that a company is there to cater to them not realizing that the first priority is to make money.

A real Fan would understand that and respect the company for trying to diversify to reach the ultimate vison, Global Domination!

Video games are mainstream now and the hardcore gamer has to share the consoles life cycle with the casual gamer. Phil was there to make sure that casual games were developed to back up the huge titles. He understood that that the World was experiencing a financial crisis a many people couldn't afford to splurge on every big title like in the past. Also with the entry price to next-gen gaming being so steep, he tried to put some nice titles out there for a resonable price. This is business 101, economics 101.

So I just don't understand the fanboy hate!
He was considered the man after every E3 event and now all of a sudden he is considered worthless.

Damn son, how shallow is that?

[dogmeat eater]

On a carnival cruise I took last week. He looked exactly like phil harrison. It probably was him.

[Gamer_Politics]

Damn poor phil cant get no breaks....

[Dellis]

Imagine if PHIL AND KEN return back to SONY?

Remember their whole SIXAXIS time on stage, Imagine that again but

for their supposedly new MOTION CONTROLLER?

[sak500]

WTH r u talking about? Both ken and phail were sacked by sony. Why would they hire those to jokers again?

Good riddance IT industry would be better off without the lying cheating b*****d.

[BigKev45]

Watch the big E3 announcement will be that Phil Harrison will be the new president at Microsoft Xbox division. Wouldn't that be some s**t!

[Slinger420]

Phil Harrison was a major reason LittleBigPlanet had such great support from SONY.

[ARog34]

I miss you Phil...

...and your one, shiny, bald head... Please make a comeback to the Playstation... Home is better now! You don't need to worry!

Ahh he was the greatest... one of the few geniouses I can think of related to Sony's gaming market!

[2paclives]

This guy floats around more than a air biscuit!