From C&VG website:

Phil Harrison will resign from his post as President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios this Friday, February 29.

Kaz Hirai, president and Group CEO of SCEI, will immediately assume responsibilities as president of Worldwide Studios, in addition to his current duties.

Prior to the launch of the original PlayStation, Phil Harrison joined Sony Electronics Publishing, Ltd. in 1992, which later evolved into Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Since then we' d all agree that he' s made a tremendous contribution to the industry as well as the company for playing a strategic role in the launch of four PlayStation platforms.

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" As one of the founding members of SCE, Phil played a key role in the development and growth of the PlayStation business and our industry," said Hirai. " It is sad to see him departing from SCE, but I wish to express my gratitude for his many invaluable contributions and also wish Phil the very best of luck in his future endeavors."

Phil Harrison added, " The past 15 years at Sony Computer Entertainment has been the defining journey of my life so far. I am grateful to all the PlayStation family for its 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."

There' s no word on what Harrison will do next. Sony UK would only say, " We will not be making any further statements." That' s that then.

Although Harrison' s decision has come a week after he said that Sony Japan got it very wrong about social gaming...

There' s no word on what Harrison will do next

Rumor has it, he will be joining Atari.

Harrison, who recently expressed his frustration at Sony Japan' s lack of foresight on the casual games front - ceding ground to Nintendo in the process - will apparently join up with ex-EA executive David Gardner and spearhead Atari' s push into the casual space.

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So, our domed friend thinks he can handle a bucket fast enough to stop the sinking Atari ship... Hmmm...

Or already sunk.

So, Harrison leaves the up & coming Sony....

For fuc.king Atari?

I guess it' s a step above that Xbox guy, Robbie Bach maybe...? who left M$ for Infinium Labs and the Phantom...

Huh?

Bach never left Microsoft . You' re thinking of Kevin Bachus. Kevin left Xbox for Infinium years ago.

At any rate, Bachus was smarter than Harrison. Bachus realized he had been duped, and left a few months later. I' ve got a feeling Phil' s going to be there when Atari finally dies.

Looks like he has gone to atari.

http://www.game.co.uk/News/?lid=8797&ad=05_03_2008

I like Phil Harrison, he was one of the only truly down-to-earth spokespeople Sony had at and around launch... but.... Atari? They' re either paying him metric assloads of money, or he' s got some savior complex that he needs to live out.

The word on the street is that Atari is going to be reinvented. They' ve got David Gardner as well, another industry veteran, who hired Phil for this job.

With this sort of leadership anything is possible. Atari could now be the next PlayStation or it could be the next Acclaim. Who knows.

Atari could now be the next PlayStation or it could be the next Acclaim. Who knows.

ORIGINAL: Adam Doree

The word on the street is that Atari is going to be reinvented. They' ve got David Gardner as well, another industry veteran, who hired Phil for this job.

Was that the guy from EA? All I know is that someone from EA also went to Atari.

Yeah, Gardner was an EA exec.

With this sort of leadership anything is possible. Atari could now be the next PlayStation or it could be the next Acclaim. Who knows.

anything is possible, look what happen to SEGA..

I' m missing the connection here. Sega lost it when they were acquired by Sammy. These guys aren' t getting bought out, they' re just restructuring.

And anyhow, anybody with brains could tell that the Sammy acquisition wasn' t going to go down well. I mean... Pachinko machines for chrissake...

But they are talking about going casual . I dont like that idea . I expect series of mediocre casual games which might sell but will not interest me ..

If they are going casual they aren' t going to make the type of games we play. The vast majority of casual games are marketed at 30+ y.o. women.

Going casual may be their best bet though. Look at the Wii.

Going casual beats going bankrupt.

Going casual and social gaming, might be very different. :-/
But I assume Phil Harrison is going to allow more experimentive games, such as Sony London and Relentless did have great success with (i.e. Singstar, Buzz and similar).
But I also do expect them to try to keep publishing more hardcore-games aswell.

I.e. the next Atari-published games I know about right now, looks promising, Alone in the Dark, sounds awfull, just dislike that it' s not published at the same time on PS3 and 360.
Legendary is looking great on screenshots, and when you read about it, it' s also beeing published by Atari in Europe from what I gather, however Sparks previous game, weren' t that great, but who knows. :-/
It' s not Atari in US tough, I believe.
They also got the D&D-license.

I think Harrison and Gardner could be a very good team for Infogrames, none of those are idiots as they said on Game Theory. :)