N'Gai Croal
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Mar 4, 2008 01:08 PM
Infogrames president Phil Harrison (upper left) and CEO David Gardner at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in NYC
The rumors, it seems, were true. Former head of Playstation's worldwide studios Phil Harrison has indeed joined Infogrames--the parent company of Atari--as its president, reporting to newly-minted CEO David Gardner. We got our first sighting of Harrison in his new role this morning when he took the floor to say a few words before Atari's press event for the survival-horror game Alone in the Dark. (We hope that's not a metaphor for the herculean task that lies ahead for Harrison and company in restoring Atari to its former stature.)
"As you may know, I had a different job [two Fridays ago]," Harrison told the crowd of journalists, who greeted him with applause. He went on to say that while he had very much enjoyed his long tenure with Sony, what got him excited was the future of videogames, which in his opinion lies in connected communities of networked gamers. "David and I have been talking about this for a long time," Harrison added, which could suggest that he and Gardner had been talking about him making the move to Infogrames prior to the January announcement of Gardner's appointment as CEO.
Before Harrison took the stage, we chatted briefly while waiting for the event to begin. We congratulated him on his new position, and asked him what sort of feedback he'd received once the announcement had been made official. The ever-wily Harrison demurred, saying that he'd been on a plane and hadn't been able to see the reaction, before turning the question back on us. We told him that we hadn't seen much in the way of informed reaction, but that the fanboys seemed confused by his decision to jump ship from Sony to Infogrames. "That's understandable," Harrison replied, smiling a knowing Mona Lisa smile as he spoke. You might say, what's he got to grin? If all goes well, Level Up may soon be in a position to know, so stay tuned.
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