14 DAY TRIAL // Recently departed from Sony, Phil Harrison certainly took a real short vacation. Today, the surprise announcement appeared that he is the new president of Infogrames, and that he will be working alongside new CEO David Gardner to revive the Atari's fortunes. Gardner himself is an interesting move, coming from an Electronic Arts background.
Phil Harrison has resigned last week from the top position at Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studios, in a move that was seen as a surprise by any. While at Sony he was regarded as the public face of the company and helped push many new initiatives out, now there's intense speculation on whether the resignation came before or after the offer from Infogrames to become president. It may very well be that the offer from Infogrames could not be refused and the resignation was a precondition that had to be fulfilled.
"This is the perfect time to join Infogrames and help shape the future of Atari - one of the industry's legendary brands. As the game business moves rapidly online I believe we have an outstanding opportunity to create amazing network game and community experiences for players the world over," said Harrison. And while his move to Infogrames has barely been announced, some of his now colleagues are quick to praise him. David Nadal, the guy that heads development at Eden Studios on the Alone in the Dark revival game, said: "I don't know Phil very well, but what I know about his job and what he's done in the past, he has very strong feelings about games and where the industry should go." As the announcement was made, the sense at Atari seemed to be that the company could all but enjoy success under the new leadership.
The first major project involving the new leaders of Infogrames and Atari will be an event related to the revival of the Alone in the Dark series.