Screw cloning Harrison, if only we could patent or trademark that shiny noggin of his! Then we'd own him. Phil Harrison®, All Rights Reserved.

HAND-HELD WITH TOUCHSCREEN [US Patent & Trademark Office via Register Hardware]

At the time, I didn’t know he was going to Atari. It was obviously a surprise when he told me he was going to move on. But, you know, it’s a small industry and he’s obviously remained in it and from his perspective, it was a great thing to move on to a new challenge.

Oh...oh Kaz. There, there. You're still beautiful, OK? It was him, not you. Him.

Kaz Hirai interview…[Three Speech]

I’ve been here two months now and I’m making a whole new group of friends. It’s like changing schools when you’re a kid.

Sounds like he's not eating lunch alone in the company cafeteria. That'd be sad.

Interview: Phil Harrison on Alone in the Dark and life after Sony [videogaming247]

I don't see that we're going to be making huge-budget, single-player games in the future. Now, that doesn't mean that we won't have ambition to do really incredible games that have high quality, high execution, and high innovation, but they won't be one-player, narrative-driven, start-middle-end games.

Phil Harrison On Why Atari Is Softening Its Hardcore Focus [Gamasutra]

I'm making is that I think the game is very relevant to the market, and I think will do very, very well. Can we afford as a company to chase that up, to USD 80 million, without downstream revenue? The answer is no.

So can we take that kind of production value and smash it into an online community and social experience? I hope so, but it won't be Alone in the Dark.

I drew this a long time ago when I was sick and Phil's life still mattered to some people. I was going to ask that you use this instead whenever something dumb he had to say was to be featured on your site, but I guess I figured I'd never see him there again now that he's over at Atari, no doubt heading up the addition of motion controls in time for the 2600's re-release. But, like a bad penny, he just keeps turning up

NEW YORK, March 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR), an interactive entertainment company, announced today that on March 24, 2008 it received a Staff Determination Letter from the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Department stating that Atari, Inc. has not gained compliance with the requirements of Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4450(b)(3), and that its securities are therefore subject to delisting from The Nasdaq Global Market.

As previously announced, on December 21, 2007, the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Department notified Atari, Inc. that, pursuant to Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4450(e)(1), unless the market value of Atari, Inc.'s publicly held shares (which is calculated by reference to Atari, Inc.'s total shares outstanding, less any shares held by officers, directors or beneficial owners of 10% or more) maintains an aggregate market value of $15.0 million or more for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days prior to March 20, 2008, Atari, Inc.'s securities would be subject to delisting. The value of Atari, Inc.'s publicly held shares did not reach that level within the required period. Atari, Inc. intends to request a hearing before a Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel in order to appeal the Nasdaq Staff's determination in light of, among other things, the pending proposal by Infogrames Entertainment SA (IESA) to acquire all of the outstanding shares of common stock not held by IESA. The hearing request will stay the delisting and, as a result, Atari, Inc.'s securities will remain listed on The Nasdaq Global Market until the Panel issues its decision following the hearing. There can be no assurance that the Panel will grant Atari, Inc.'s request for continued listing on The Nasdaq Global Market.

The Atari opportunity is the best opportunity that exists in the industry today to redefine, re-focus and re-energize an incredible brand, an incredible group of people towards that networked future. Um, and to do it in a fun way.

In terms of European leaders in the games development industry, I've always wanted to work with Phil... He's going to partner with me to build the future. He'll be the most senior guy responsible for all the content and network-centric material, all the investments that we make in games... I have to say there is a lot of excitement around this mission that we're talking about, the brand and the people we're talking about — there is a bit of a magnet around us.

We kid, because we love you, Phil... and we're a little worried.

Harrison will be overseeing the studios and content development for the group, which owns the Atari brand.

"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. I am especially excited to be working on this challenge together with David, one of the most respected leaders and successful executives in our industry."

I'd imagine that Infogrames would have had to drop quite a bit of coin to lure Harrison away from Sony, though I bet that fancy new title helped. Heck, I'd be Directeur Général Délégué for Infogrames just for the business cards.

PHIL HARRISON APPOINTED PRESIDENT (DIRECTEUR GENERAL DELEGUE) AT INFOGRAMES AND JOINS THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Former President of Worldwide Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment, with World Class Gaming Expertise Joins Infogrames to Lead Group Publishing and Game Development into the Network Era

Lyon - France, March 3, 2008 - Infogrames Entertainment announces today the appointment of Phil Harrison as President and Directeur Général Délégué of Infogrames Entertainment, reporting to David Gardner. Phil Harrison also joins the Board of Directors

With the recent appointment of David Gardner as CEO, Phil and David will together form the basis of a transformational leadership team at Infogrames that will grow the Atari brand into a leading online game company. Phil Harrison will oversee the Studios and content development for the group. Phil will be in charge of boosting the Group's publishing activities, notably through reinforcing its franchise portfolio of products, developing its new packaged and online games, and strengthening its internal and external studio capability through attracting world-class design and development talent to the organisation.

David Gardner, the CEO of Infogrames, declared: "I am pleased to welcome Phil to Infogrames. He has an outstanding reputation in the industry, as one of the key leaders behind the success of PlayStation. We have been seeking an opportunity to work together for some time and I am certain he will be able to make a significant contribution to the publishing strategy of the Group. Drawing upon Infogrames' strong financial foundation, Phil will have the means to attract new talent, develop studio and online capabilities, and drive forward our publishing activities. I want to work with people that understand fun for consumers and fun in the company culture. We're going to have a lot more of both around here with Phil!"

Regarding his appointment, Phil stated, "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. I am especially excited to be working on this challenge together with David, one of the most respected leaders and successful executives in our industry."

An International Game Development Pioneer Joins Infogrames

Phil Harrison is a leading executive in the field of interactive entertainment software and hardware with a career that spans over 20 years in this industry. He joins Infogrames from Sony Computer Entertainment, where he most recently was the President of Worldwide Studios and headed the PlayStation video games software development business unit. In this position, working closely with the talented game development studios in Japan, Europe, North America and Polyphony Digital, Inc., Phil Harrison was responsible for setting the global product strategy and leading the management team of 16 development studios in 5 countries, with over 2500 employees. Under his leadership, Sony created more than 10 original software franchises that have each generated over $100M in revenue.

Phil spent over 15 years at Sony, where he was a key contributor and innovator in building the PlayStation family of products and developing it into of the most successful brands in interactive entertainment globally. Since launching in December 1994, over 250 million units of PlayStation-branded hardware and more than 2 billion units of software from Sony Computer Entertainment and licensed publishing partners have been sold, making it one of the world's leading entertainment and technology brands.

Phil Harrison started his career in 1989, as head of development for Mindscape International and prior to that as a consultant game designer and graphic artist in the UK. Since joining Sony in 1992, Phil has held executive management positions in Europe and North America, where he served as Vice President, Third Party Relations and Research and Development for Sony Computer Entertainment from 1996 to 2000.

Commenting on this appointment, Michel Combes, Chairman of the Board of Infogrames stated " Having spent their entire careers in the video games industry, David Gardner and Phil Harrison bring their vision, their passion and a proven track-record of success in this arena to Infogrames. Phil Harrison is a great business developer, with an outstanding ability to innovate great products in the games industry. He brings with him an impressive track record from Sony, one of the leading technology, media and entertainment companies in the world. We are delighted that he has decided to join Infogrames at this transformative moment in its history to spearhead our publishing, game development and studio activities".

When we heard that Harrison was going the way of Moore and Allard, fleeing from his job to parts unknown, we were genuinely concerned. So concerned, in fact, that Luke made up a missing person flyer and like clockwork Harrison was spotted... by Harrison.

From: Phil Harrison To: Brian Crecente

Hey Brian,

Hope all is well - I missed you at GDC, sorry our paths didn't manage to cross.

As I wind things down here at SCE this week, I wanted to reach out and say "thank you" for what has been a fun and entertaining few years skirmishing along either side of the PlayStation story.

While the vast majority of your posts have been bang on target; many made me laugh out loud, some have made me want to throw things around the office and some have just been, er, wrong. But the one thing they all share in common is that they've been written with absolute passion for games and commitment to your readers and for that I salute you.

I'm sure our paths will cross again but for now I look forward to my new adventure with great excitement and a life where my used chewing gum has less significance.

BTW, important fact checker: As anyone who really knows me is aware, I'm 6'7" not 6'6'...(cue smutty headline about the extra inch making all the difference)

Also, where the hell did you get that picture from? Seems like I have a mouth full of food...

Take care and best wishes,

Phil

P.S. I guess the Reggie, Peter, Phil group hug will have to wait a while...

From: Brian Crecente To: Phil Harrison

Hey Phil,

I really appreciate the email and the kind words. We really did mean we it when we said we would miss you. Sony needs more people like you not less. Not only did you do a good job of running Worldwide Studios, but you helped personalize a company that I think some felt was starting to turn its back on gamers. Of course, we all know it wasn't, but it was good to have you out there dealing with the issues and answering questions without trying to spin them.

Feel free to drop us a line when you're ready to say where you're headed.

Brian

p.s. Can I post this email? I think our readers would LOVE it.

It's worth noting that Harrison OKed me posting his email only after I agreed to post my suck-upish reply to him as well. Dammit. At least I know we only have to wait until Monday to find out where he's landed.

""We don't use half the buttons on the 360 controller," admitted Molyneux, "simply because the whole dream I've got is that someone will sit down to play Fable 2 who has never played a game before and they can play with someone who's played games the whole of their lives.

"You hand somebody a game controller and it's like you've handed them a live gun or a hand grenade with the pin taken out"

I believe Harrison is exaggerating, but then again I make it a point never to carry around live hand grenades on my person so who knows? They both make a very good point. Back when games consoles first started there was a joystick and a button, but since then controllers have evolved to the point where you can find a complicated looking map within the first two pages of most game manuals.

Harrison went on to praise two innovators in the realm of control...Nintendo for the Wiimote, which gives non-gamers something more familiar to work with, and Apple's iPhone, which he says appeals to the user's natural instincts.

"I saw this first hand a few weeks ago where a two year old was playing with an iPhone and he knows how to get the pictures up of mum and dad. The two year-old then intuitively thought that all electronic devices worked like that," said Harrison. "He's pressing the TV to change channels."

"He's right and the rest of us are wrong - that should be applied universally. Apple should be applauded for that innovation," he added.

Harrison: Non-gamers see controllers as live guns [GamesIndustry.biz]

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 their 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.

SCE Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison Resigns

SCE Group CEO Kazuo Hirai Assumes Responsibilities

TOKYO, Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) today announced that Phil Harrison, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE WWS), will resign from Sony Computer Entertainment Group as of February 29, 2008. Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO of SCEI, will immediately assume responsibilities as president of SCE WWS, 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, and since then, he has made a tremendous contribution to the company playing a strategic role in the launch of four PlayStation platforms, as well as building strong relationships with game developers and publishers throughout the world. Since his appointment to the position of president, SCE WWS, Harrison applied his considerable skill, knowledge and expertise to lead SCE Group's first party game development as well as aggressively pursuing the development of new online entertainment experiences.
"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 Kazuo 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."
"The past 15 years at Sony Computer Entertainment has been the defining journey of my life so far," said Phil Harrison. "I am grateful to all the PlayStation family for their 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."

About Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
Recognized as the global leader and company responsible for the progression of consumer-based computer entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) manufacturers, distributes and markets the PlayStation(R) game console, the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system, the PSP(R) (PlayStation(R)Portable) handheld entertainment system and the PLAYSTATION(R)3 (PS3(R)) system. PlayStation has revolutionized home entertainment by introducing advanced 3D graphic processing, and PlayStation 2 further enhances the PlayStation legacy as the core of home networked entertainment. PSP is a new handheld entertainment system that allows users to enjoy 3D games, with high-quality full-motion video, and high-fidelity stereo audio. PS3 is an advanced computer system, incorporating the state-of-the-art Cell processor with super computer like power. SCEI, along with its subsidiary divisions Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd., and Sony Computer Entertainment Korea Inc. develops, publishes, markets and distributes software, and manages the third party licensing programs for these platforms in the respective markets worldwide. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. is an independent business unit of the Sony Group.

...

Apparently, Phil Harrison is joining forces with ex-EA exec and current Atari honcho David Gardner to make the beleaguered company less crappy. Previously, Gardner said:

My goal is to help rebuild that passion around the company. First, with the employees and then very quickly to spread it virally on the internet to millions of new customers. I have a personal challenge to create a world-class company that is European in flavor but reaches global markets.

This will take some time of course, but here we have fantastic gaming DNA formed at the birth of the industry, access to creative talent and a company with the working capital to make the necessary investments to realize this vision.

That's gotta be one of the best back-handed compliments ever, I'd think, and maybe not entirely accurate. Sure, Nintendo dominates software charts with first party product, but games like Capcom's Resident Evil efforts, Mario & Sonic at the Olympics and Guitar Hero III have done pretty well for themselves on the Wii.

Sony's Harrison: You Can't Get Wii's Whole Audience [Gamasutra]

I mentioned a week or so back that Playboy had an intriguing feature on their latest magazine that talks to a collection of game developers about some of the deeper issues involved in creating and expanding video games and play.

In the article, which is now on their mostly work-safe website, they talk to:

Kane & Lynch's Jens Peter Kurup about making games for adults and creating unlikeable characters.
Clive Barker about his love of gaming and why film is fascist.
Sony Worldwide Studio Prez Phil Harrison about the expense of game development and death of the disc.
Harmonix Co-Founder Alex Rigopoulos about creating an army of real drummers with Rock Band.
David Jaffe about the shallow game design in God of War.
Tim Schafer of Double Fine Productions about the death of adventure games and the life-cycle of a critical acclaimed video game.

The monstrously long package is chock full of interesting insight into a bunch of designers who not only know their stuff, but are willing to talk frankly about the industry.

Geniuses at Play [Playboy]

On traditional and digital distribution

I don't think the two markets are necessarily mutually exclusive. I think gamers will look to big epic games as something they'll buy five, six times a year. And then there will be a number of games that they will purchase by the PlayStation Network, perhaps every month, with a low cost of entry. I also think we'll start to see digitally delivered games generate a fan base, a following, some awareness, and then be developed up to full Blu-ray disc games and sold at retail.

On how the industry has changed

When I was 17 or 18 years old and hanging out in a bar, talking to girls and somebody would say, "What do you do for a living?" I would mutter something about working in computers. I wouldn't have said that I was in the computer game industry. It just wasn't cool. Wind the clock forward 20 years and say, "I work for PlayStation," and people are fascinated. It's a fashion brand, it's a technology brand, it's an entertainment brand that is very relevant to people's lives. We are now a part of popular culture. That is the most significant and, I hope, long-lasting change that we've seen.

On what he would change if he could

You can buy a Sunday newspaper in any city anywhere in the world and there will be a magazine insert in it called something like "Culture" or "Weekend Life." And in that supplement you will find excellent writing and reports about film and television and theater and radio and all kinds of print media like books and magazines, but you will very rarely see games considered as culture or art. That's what I would change. Most games are described in the technology pages, rather than in the arts and entertainment pages. Games are such a widely enjoyed entertainment pastime that it is completely appropriate that they be covered by the kind of high-level journalists you expect to get other cultural reporting from. Present company excepted, of course.

The Harrison interview is a good read as well as the other Q&As of game creators Playboy quizzed. Definitely worth checking out.
Geniuses at Play [Playboy via GameSetWatch]

Yeah, we get it. There's an opportunity to save a couple bucks. But why remove the PlayStation 2 chipset altogether, after investing in software emulation and eliminating hundreds of titles from the PS3 library? According to an interview with SCEE reps at GamesIndustry BIZ a "reduced emphasis placed on this feature amongst later purchasers of PS3, as well as the availability of a more extensive line-up of PS3 specific titles" is the reason the company is nixing the once promised support.

Plus, they've got 65 PS3 titles ready for the holidays.

Solution? Buy the 60GB (while they're still available), natch. This is the one time as an early hardware adopter that I don't feel screwed over. Off to hug my Emotion Engine!

40GB PS3 Confirmed for Europe; Sony Gives Up on Backwards Compatibility [GameDaily BIZ]

If we have any spares or irregular Phil clones, we're willing to accept offers. Serious inquiries only.

Phil Harrison popped by my chair after the press conference to chat for a second about how it went and I had a second to ask him about how this news might impact the U.S. Specifically I wanted to know if North America had a chance of getting the DVR service for the Playstation 3 or a video download service for the PSP.

The short answer, unfortunately, is no, well at least not yet.

The problem with the DVR is that the U.S. doesn't have terrestrial digital television yet, so while some cities like San DIego have it not nearly support in the U.S. to make it worth the effort for Sony. When that changes, and it will, Sony will be on the ball, Harrison said.

Unfortunately, things look much bleaker for the Sky service being rolled out in Europe. There is nothing really nationwide in the U.S. that delivers video content over the air by subscription. So, until that happens we won't be seeing that in the U.S.

Ps. Harrison is almost exactly one foot taller than me.

I'm sitting down on the faux plastic grass of Sony's mammoth, and quite cool, GC booth. They've got wood chairs set up facing a large screen that reads "Welcome to the Scee Press Conference."

Hey! Phil Harrison just stopped by to say hi. Nice guy. I ran my best guesses for the conference by him to see if I could get a reaction:

PSP Video Download Service announced: Stone faced.
FIFA tournament announced: Stone faced.
FIFA president to take the stage: Stone faced.
Any my personal favorite wild rumor: PS3 Rumble controller announced: Stone faced.

Hit the jump to follow along the press conference.

The show's starting. They're showing a cool video montage showing off some of their past, present and future greats including Ratchet and Clank,. God of War, SingStar and of course their library of hardware from PS One to the PS3.

David Reeves, president of SCEE, is on the stage to share with us some "key announcements" for the PS3 European market.

"Games Convention and more important this year, in particular since the E3 has moved to a more regional show."

Before the big announcements, which includes some "new game announcements", Reeves wants to talk about growing the gaming market. He says the market for TV based consoles have risen 65 percent in PAL market in the past ten years.

PS3 sell through saw a 240 percent increase in Germany in the first week after the introduction of the new bundle there.

"The growth of social growth has been a key component of our strategy."

More than 645,000 European PS3 owners have registered for the Playstation Network, which is about a 50 percent install base. The best selling titles on the PSN are Tekken 5, Flow, Super Rub a Dub and Calling all Cars. Tekken 5 had 103,000 downloads.

Now on from stats to new software and such. The Playstation 3 is first.

Early in the new year will be introducing Play TV, it turns your Playstation 3 into a DVR. Play TV will use a small device that can record a channel while you watch another channel.

To use you connect your television to the device and then to your PS3 and it supported high def video. Oh man, it looks amazing. And! It can stream video live or recorded to your PSP. HOTNESS. Though he didn't mention North America specifically he did say it would be coming to "other" regions. So keep your fingers crossed

OK going through some of the stuff we know now about some exciting PS3 games. Hey, Hideo is in the audience. He just got a little name drop. But, alas, nothing new on Metal Gear Solid 4 at this presser.

It looks like Buzz, that little game show trivia game for the PS2 is coming to the PS3, they had a sorta annoying announcement by the game's announcer.

Now they're showing a new Gran Turismo video. The video shows inside the car during the video looks, as always, very impressive.

GT5 Prologue will hit in Europe before the end of the year.

Now on to the Playstation Portable. Reeves is talking a bit now about Echochrome, that sexy brain teaser we saw at E3.

Ah, he didn't really say anything. Onto a montage video.

They're talking about the new slimmer PSP now. The PSP Slim and Light is coming to Europe in September. It will come here in the normal colors as well as in special Simpsons and Spiderman versions.

Now they're talking about Go! Messenger, a service that will allow you to chat with users around the world using your PSP. It will also support the PSP cam and allow you to do video chat. It's scheduled for launch in January of 08.
.
On to Go! Explore, which is a satellite navigation tool for the PS3 which supports both vehicle and pedestrian maps. It will allow you to plan your route in advance and follow it in three dimensions.

They're showing a demo now. The device plugs into the back of your PSP and sticks up about twice as high as the camera, though I suspect that's the antenna, which I'd guess can fold out of the way when not in use.

Oh that's neat, it creates a little 3D map that actually displays some famous buildings along your route, so it's not just float roads.

Ah! That screen looks familiar. It's the PSP Video Download Service slide I saw this morning. The video download service is exclusive to the PSP.

The video download service will launch with a "rich selection of high quality entertainment." It will include Sky content (their partner) in addition to some third party content owners. Latest movies and high-profile sporting events will be available on a pay-per-view basis. You will have a choice of payment options. Either you can take out a subscription or just by per a piece of content.

Showing some "possible content." Like movies such as Spider-Man and Ghost Rider. Television shows and sports,

This service is due out in the UK and Ireland in early 2008. He said they are also active in discussions in France and will be working on Spain and Germany next. Hey, what about the US?

Ah, on to the FIFA news I overheard. I believe.

PS3 is teaming with EA for the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2008. The tournament this year will support players from around the world on the PS3.

They've just brought the FIFA higher-up Chuck Blazer to the stage to discuss the tourney. Registration for the online element is now underway at www.fifa.com/fiwc. Andrew Wilson, executive producer of FIFA for EA, took the stage to show off the new FIFA game.

Stop the presses FIFA 08 announced... burn.

They're showing off the game on the PS3. How bout that, this EA game runs at 60 frames per a second on the PS3. It looks pretty good, though they're not showing it on the big screen, so it's hard to see.

OK, they've introduced the head of Sony Computer Entertainment Germany to the stage to wrap things up.

It looks like he will be talking about the German market.

Hmmm, they're showing a video of a German rock band, Toten Hosen, now. Not sure why, but they're apparently known for their "barn storming" performances.

They're showing them playing SingStar ah, it looks like they're taking the stage now. To sing live.

Reeves is back up on stage after a bit of Toten Hosen. He's wrapping up just how massive the upcoming months for the PSP and PS3 will be.

I think the biggest news is the DVR TV Anywhere news. I sure hope it comes to the US. That's it. We'll circle back in a bit with the official press releases, images and vids.

The kids from 1UP and EGM sat down with Sony Worldwide Studios' king cue ball Phil Harrison at E3 2007 to chat all things PlayStation software related. Of interest to console torch and pitchfork bearers is Harrison's response to questions about Madden NFL 08's underwhelming performance on the PLAYSTATION 3. Phil, why does the PS3 version run a last-gen 30 frames per second?

Well, I can only point to our own sports studio—1080p, 60 frames-per-second basketball game. I'm afraid I have no idea. We're providing some tools and technologies from our worldwide studio's core technology groups to 3rd parties now, as well. You may remember something from GDC, we announced this thing called Edge and that's now widely deployed in the third party community, and that is clearly improving the developer's ability to maximize what the CELL processor does. So, hopefully, that will assist folks like EA.

Phil later added that "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."

Well played, Phil—but we'll make sure to mention that an NBA game features about half the players on the court compared to an NFL game. There's plenty more where that came from in the full video interview, including plenty of detail on this fall's release of Home.

I was personally wondering what the agreement between Epic and Sony to refine the Unreal Engine on the PS3 really meant. Fortunately, GI's Billy Berghammer asked the man who would know best. Phil says:

If we're honest, we didn't do enough of a good job supporting [Epic Games] and getting them the tools and technology early enough. Also, Epic isn't a huge company. They don't have unlimited resource. We have parachuted in some of our SWAT team of super engineers to help them. Specifically, to optimize for SPUs, which are the point of difference that the Cell Processor has. That process is under way. 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.

Great! But what follows is even more interesting. When asked about Epic not "[having] their tech up to speed" with developers "waiting for updates", Phil responded to the announcement as an admission that "It's going to get fixed, it's going to get better?" with:

Yes, I think that's a fair summary. We know that there are a lot of developers who are using the technology, so this is a significant impact for the industry.

Granted, this was in relation to multiplatform games built on the Unreal Engine, something that Silicon Knights' Too Human needn't have worried about. But does this lend credibility to the claim that Epic was not providing proper support to its clients licensing UE3?

A Conversation With Phil Harrison [Game Informer]

He and I start chatting and he suddenly asks me about the odds on the group hug. For those of you who didn't partake in the Kotaku E3 Fantasy Betting Pool, one of our more outlandish predictions was that Reggie Fils-Aime, Peter Moore and Phil Harrison would have a group hug. The odds? 1,000,000 to one.

I asked Harrison if he was considering an on-stage group hug with Moore and Fils-Aime. If he can bet $5, he replies. Maybe Kotaku dollars? And I hear that Peter Moore was talking up the idea on a recent podcast. It sounds like I only need to convince Reggie.

I'm looking at the platform as an entire portfolio. And yes, I'm always concerned to make sure that consumers can buy the best games and get the best game experiences to validate their system purchase. [But] as long as the games they get are great, [consumers] don't care if they are third-party or first-party...What I do believe is that the investments we have made in Worldwide Studios globablly - U.S., Europe, and Japan - will yield the best quality software and the highest quality experiences that are clearly going to be exclusive to the platform...We have a larger platform-dedicated development resource than our competitors combined. So all of that goes towards the fact that the best games with the best technology are coming exclusively to [Sony] platforms.

Harrison Interview [Gamers-Creed via QJ.Net]

SCEA president Jack Tretton said the company is "open to changing the SIXAXIS controller." Similarly, Sony Worldwide Studios' Phil Harrison, instead of denying hardware changes to Slashdot readers, simply said "it's a little too early" to date the return of rumble.

Now Inner Bits, who revealed detailed info on SCEE job cuts, say that it's already in the works.

Many have suspected that since the agreement [with Immersion], Sony will have been working on a new controller with rumble support. We can now confirm that this is the case. We've heard from two independent sources at Sony that they have been working on prototypes for several months. Officially, the corporate line is still "no comment". Unofficially, Sony is facing some difficulties with battery life; i.e. Between the rumble and the wireless support, the batteries are draining too fast to be acceptable for consumers.

Bad battery life? Sounds familiar. Hey, Sony, anyone with a Wiimote is familiar with short battery life, so don't let that hold you back. Just pack in a sensibly long USB cable and we'll call it done, okay? Michael McWhertor

PS3 Controller with Rumble in Development [Inner Bits]

One of more intersting...no... wait, telling responses from Phil was about the future of force feedback in PS3 controllers.

How long will we have to wait until we see a first party controller with rumble? As we've only recently resolved our legal differences with Immersion, it's a little early to answer this. However, you can play games on PS3 that support devices that have force-feedback already, most notably driving games through steering wheels.

On the topic of exclusives, and Harrison's "concern" on losing them, he says "We have the widest selection of meaningful exclusives on PlayStation 3 - by virtue of our own investments in our development studios and strategic support of independent developers and publishers." I'm sure some will argue that point, of course. What most will agreed on is Phil's take on past PR blunders like the ill-conceived All I Want For Xmas Is A PSP campaign, for which the SCEWW prez says they've been "rightly flamed."

The rest the Q&A is well worth checking out. Michael McWhertor

Phil Harrison Answers Your Questions [Slashdot]

"This is the third continent out of three, but it is the most important," he told GamesIndustry.biz. "It's got most countries, it's the most people, it's the most cultures...

"The fact that we've got the launch here with more consoles shipped on day one that we've ever had in our history is a compliment to the importance of the European market."

Still, I can see where he's coming from. Europe has given us French toast, Belgian Waffles, Swedish pancakes, English muffins, Polish sausage, and Danish pastries. Seeing as breakfast is the most important meal of the day, logic dictates that Europe be the most important continent.

I really need to eat before I start posting. Michael Fahey

Europe is "most important continent", says Harrison [GamesIndustry.biz]

Well I'm disappointed that you would use those as the first questions. I think Home should be used for a much wider and more beneficial scope than that, but I think that people can express their creativity inside Home in a wide variety of ways and it's not necessarily for us to dictate what that should be. However, if somebody feels uncomfortable about an encounter on Home, it's very easy for them to ban that person from their friends list...

Still, I applaud the folks at Three Speech, who somehow managed to keep the focus on porn potential even after witnessing the delightful LittleBigPlanet. While the rest of us were dreaming of little burlap people bouncing off stars, those guys were keeping it real. Michael Fahey

FURTHER PHIL HARRISON INTERVIEW FROM GDC [Three Speech via Eurogamer]

Wow. Say what you will about Phil Harrison, president of Worldwide Studios for Sony, but the man certainly has some brass balls. Harrison has agreed to make a run through the Q&A gauntlet that is the Slashdot Ask series.

Essentially, Zonk opens the floodgates to the readers, letting them ask whatever questions they want of a person and then tries to guide the person in the sights through the gauntlet.

Keep in mind these are questions that come straight from the readers, readers that Zonk likes to describe as "cranky." Brian Crecente

Ask Sony's Phil Harrison About PS3 and Games [Slashdot]

What we know about Afrika for the PS3: It's got animals. Back at GDC, Sony's Phil Harrison chatted with game site Pro-G about the mysterious title:

The game designers on Afrika are being deliberately coy about the game experience. I know what it is; I've seen it and I know it's going to be a very interesting gaming experience. It's not about killing and it's not about running around the environment shooting elephants and hippopotami — that would be awful. That's not what we're all about. What we're about is taking people to places in a virtual world. So Afrika, I think, is a great example of that.

Notice how he said "hippopotami" and not "hippopotamuses." Totally incorrect, but still, That's why Phil's paid the big bucks! Brian Ashcraft

Harrison Talks Afrika [Pro-G via The Last Boss]

We, and more importantly the Playstation 3, needs to hear more from Harrison. He's obviously very passionate about his console, in a good way and that's always a great thing for gamers.

Recently Harrison met with Sony-backed ThreeSpeech and a gaggle of gamers in the UK to run them through what he showed off at the conference.

Among some of the gems that came out of the event:

* Phil said Sony are looking at ways for people to sell items to one another, however they do not want to become a bank and take on the responsibility and regulations that entails.

* Phil did confirm that the PAL/Euro version of the Playstation 3 currently has over 1200 compatible PS2 titles, with more to be added to the list by the time the console launches. This will be via a necessary firmware upgrade to 1.6 (the consoles were shipped over 4 weeks ago.)

* The Sony PR man said that a new HD camera and mic. with spatial awareness will be coming later in the year. Also downloaded PS1 games playable on the PS3 will happen- but later this year.

I think that EyeToy was very much a missed opportunity for the PS2, or perhaps you could make the case for the device just being ahead of its time. But now, with HD and more robust consoles, I think it's time Sony allows this interface device to spread its wings. Brian Crecente

European PS3 has over 1200 compatible PS2 titles (and rising) [PlayThree]

Today, the site for that beta has gone live, but contains little useful info. In fact, I'll save you the unnecessary click. This is really all it has to say.

Home is a real-time 3D, networked community that serves as a meeting place for PLAYSTATION 3 users from around the world, where they can interact, communicate, join online games, shop, share content and even build their own personal spaces. Home will be available as a free download from the PLAYSTATION Store and will launch directly from the PS3 system's Home Menu.

Keep checking back on this site to register an interest in taking part in an exclusive closed Beta Trial of Home.

In other words, watch this space. We'll update with plenty of exclamation points when public beta registration goes live. Michael McWhertor

Home Beta Trial

Shortly after delivering his Game 3.0 speech at the Game Developers Conference, Phil Harrison sat down with me for a ten-minute, one-on-one interview about the reaction to Home, developer reticence, why there is a backlash against Sony and other things.

Hit the jump for the slightly edited conversation. Brian Crecente

Crecente: OK, I guess the first question is judging on the...

Harrison: Congratulations on your New York Times performance by the way.

Crecente: I was shocked at that.

Harrison: I'm very proud of you.

Crecente: Someone IMed me last night and I was like what? I went in there and looked. They cited a highly placed.. a Sony exec right?

PR person: A highly placed industry veteran.

Harrison: And that would be you.

Everyone: Hahahahahaha

Crecente: It's amazing, both understanding what happened during your presentation today but also we posted it and looking at the comments. People are like "Sony's back" Did you you see this as a defining moment, did you think this was going to be a huge moment for the Playstation 3?

Harrison: I think that the.. where to begin. I know that Home is really special and I know that it has the potential to be incredibly powerful not just as a brand, but for the consumers and the industry, so it's not a complete surprise. But you never know until you stand up in front of an audience of experts, yourselves, the media last night or the development community today. So clearly we have been doing a lot of internal show and tell on Home for a long time. Only just recently did we start to share with our third parties which is I think where you probably got your uh..

Crecente: No comment.

Harrison: You're the one saying no comment now.

Laughter

Harrison: And that's fine, we obviously have to include our close partners in our plans early so we can consult with them and get their feedback. Every single meeting we've done with them, every single presentation we've had universally positive, incredible feedback, so that gave us a lot of confidence, but like I said you never know. The reaction has been tremendous and I'm very much looking forward to getting online and reading the forums and seeing what people are saying. Sadly since I've come off stage I've sat doing broadcast interviews.

Crecente: Speaking of third parties... in that tip we received the person who tipped us said they felt that developer were now being told they had to do this extra work.

Harrison: I don't know who told you that, but they have told you wrong information.

Crecente: How does it work? Is it a requirement, like say awards, the trophies. Does that have to be in all games now?

Harrison: We've made no statements about that, so I don't know how anybody would have told you that because we haven't told that to any third parties, categorically.

Crecente: OK, have you decided on that?

Harrison: We are consulting with our third parties. I don't think every game needs to have trophies, my personal opinion. I don't think we need to have it. But if it's meaningful to the community, then just the simple fact of buying the game, owning the game could trigger a trophy. Now a developer has to create a bitmap to show their game saves or their icon on the cross media bar anyway. So for them to take a small bit of 3D geometry, maybe a character, an object, or a weapon, what ever, and put it through RSDK and create an icon, it's like ten minutes work. So this is very low impact. Very low intensity work that would be required to support Home in a very simple straight forward way.

Crecente: What about... these areas within home where you can create a store or a location? In talking to some developers around GDC I think while a lot of people are very excited I think one of the concerns is that the only people who could really, really make use of that in a big way, like what you were showing is like an EA. Do you think that the smaller third-parties are going to be able to use these services.

Harrison: It's really easy, it's Maya. I don't want to mischaracterize it and say it's cut and paste, because it's not. But if you are building a 3D world for your game. I have to be careful because I can't use real world examples.

Imagine a game that has a realistic street scene. It would be very simple to grab four of the buildings in that street scene that have been already created for the game anyway and for those to form the walls or the boundaries of the space. You could put a realistic floor down, you could put video, you could put banners. There are lots of ways you could do it. You could either do it very ultra realistic or you could do it sort of crazy weird, sci-fi. There are lots of approaches you could take, the simplest way would be to reuse 3D content. That was exactly the philosophy behind the choices we made in the tools and technology to make it really low impact for developers.

Now I understand why developers are asking questions because we've not shared all of the information with them. But we will address that.

Crecente: One of the things that have baffled a little bit is that there are some things that stand out about the PS3. One of them would be the hardware, you guys have not had any hardware problems. Everyone else has had hardware problems at launch and the PS3 seems pretty rock solid. Why haven't you tried to market it better. I've gone through eight Xbox 360s. Nintendo less so, they've had their strap issues, but we've also had a few reports of other problems. But zero with the PS3.

Harrison: It's not really surprising. Sony has a rich history of manufacturing skill and quality control going back sixty years. I come from a software background not a hardware background, but since I've been at Sony you realize there is something in the fabric of the company about the way we care about quality, the way we care about reliability, the way we care about the consumer. And so this has been played out in the fact that the Playstation One, Playstation Two and now the Playstation Three have all been incredibly well-built, incredibly reliable platforms, even though they often have been at the leading edge of available technology at the time.

But to pick-up on your question why don't we market that? That's like saying you know, when did you stop beating your wife. You can never turn a perceived negative into a positive. I don't think you need to market quality, quality is something people know.

Crecente: You can't say our console doesn't break.

Harrison: Yeah, forgive me, but that was a really stupid idea.

Crecente: But the thing that among hardcore gamers there was this perception of negative PS3 news and it's like why not say, hey, look what we did right?

Harrison: I had this conversation with N'Gai Croal, I don't know if you read the piece. By what measure was the Playstation 3 not a resounding, successful launch? Because we sold out, we managed to continue supply, we have had great line-up of software. We outsold ourselves in the same time frame and then you add to that the zero, although I'm sure it's not zero, clearly there is someone out there who has had a problem, it's never zero, in terms of notable problems, there's nothing. And I'm sure there were some people who had already written that story who felt damn I can't publish that story.

Crecente: I think it is not an arguable point that you can say that there has been this sort of backlash against Sony.

Harrison: Yeah.

Crecente: Where is it coming from?

Harrison: You know what I would rather do, because time is short today, I would rather spend our time talking about the future, things going forward. The launch has been the launch. It's about to happen in Europe, I'm really excited about that.

PR: We are about down to two minutes.

Crecente: OK, two more questions.

Crecente: Software support. There seems to be a lag between the launch titles and Motorstorm, which I think is a fantastic title. How are things looking. Do you think you will have a strong line-up going forward?

Harrison: It's a killer line-up. When you launch a console it's never entirely predictable when the games are going to come out. But now we are into much more predictable software supply. You can look at the line-up starting with Formular 1, Motorstorm, MLB, Lair, Heavenly Sword, and moving into the fall with new games from Insomniac and Naughty Dog.

Not only do you have what I would describe as hardcore games, I don't like that description because I don't think it means anything, but games that people could game many days of the week. We have a second generation game coming from Insomniac. Their second release on the system will be happening this year. That is going to be very, very exciting to see.

Then layer on top of that two sort of market expanding areas. One is Playstation Network titles and the other is services that are going to appeal to new users, Home being one of them, LittleBigPlanet being another, SingStar being a third. I'm really happy with the line-up.

And then layer onto that what's coming from the third parties. I'm less up to speed on all of the features and benefits of those titles, because of the nature of the Chinese Wall, but I know we have some really interesting things coming from Konami, Sega, Square-Enix, EA, Take-2. Lucas Arts also has something very cool.

Crecente: Do you expect to take any heat from the Warhawk announcement being downloadable only.

Harrison: No, quite the opposite. Warhawk is the embodiment of pretty much what we've been talking about today, which is we now have a community of users who are online, connected online. Who want to play with or against each other online and recognize in many cases, not all cases, great gaming experiences happen against other human beings.

You have a fantastic game experience like Warhawk, so why wouldn't you take advantage of that and focus the efforts of the developer to make the best collaborative, cooperative, combative game you can. To make the best multi-modal combat game that there can be to take advantage of the hardware. I think it's a no brainer.

However, before he rolled film, he extended one caveat to the press. "I need to kind of couch this first. This is to show you the technology, not to show you the game. So please don't be thinking about the game too much, I just want you to be looking at the imagery and how we've constructed some of the scenes and how complex some of the scenes are."

What played was a dark, quietly operatic look at the destructable environments of Killzone, the rag-doll physics of dying Hellghast soldiers, the lighting and environmental effects that the Guerilla crew have been slaving away on since the game's genesis. Windows shattered and troops fell as gunfire ripped through indoor environments. Outdoors a tank battle and multiple firefights showed the game will feature plenty of action.

So how did it look? I tried hard to heed Harrison's warning about the clip, but I couldn't help but focus on the game itself.

Visually it was certainly less impressive than the infamous E3 2005 pre-rendered target trailer, that's for sure. Animation quality varied, looking awkward at times. Moments smacked uncomfortably of Vivendi's F.E.A.R.