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

Because of a shift of business operations to the US, Phil Harrison will move from the role of President to that of non-executive Director of the Group. As all Board members, he will continue to assist, support and guide the Company's strategy.

He's still sticking around, sure, but the whole "non-executive" thing makes his new job title sound awfully ceremonial.

Which, if correct, is a shame for Atari, since Harrison is one of the most well-known and successful public faces a company can hope for in this business.

But it must be a bigger shame for Phil, since you only ever get one chance in a lifetime to have a business card that says "Directeur Général Délégué".

We'll contact Atari in the morning, and try to get a clearer idea of what this move means for both Atari and Harrison, along with who, exactly, will be replacing him (the company's report does not specifically name a replacement).

That disagreement, which reportedly infuriated Sony president Norio Ohga, let to a transition in power. Edge explores the birth of the console that would ultimately change the landscape of the industry, with Sony chinking away at the armor of then-dominant consoles from Sega and Nintendo with its PlayStation. As a companion piece to the magazine's historical piece on the "Fall of Nintendo," it's a fascinating follow-up.

Not only do readers get a peek at preliminary PlayStation logos—which some have probably seen before—and the evolution of the console's controllers, we get a chance to see the old Sony guard in their prime, when Phil Harrison had hair and Ken Kutaragi had a real job.

There's real drama here, when consoles had surprise launches, executives undercut the prices set by their Japanese bosses and games like the original Tekken were complete unknowns. Fascinating stuff.

The Making Of: PlayStation [Edge-Online] [Image Credit]

Speaking with Edge, Harrison says:

This isn't new information,‭ ‬but our original plan was to start our own company.‭ ‬It was while studying that process that David [Gardner, CEO of Atari's parent company, Infogrames] met the asset management company that owned the majority‭ ‬share holding of Infogrames.‭ ‬So we decided to take our blank-sheet-of-paper vision and apply it to Atari.

Not new information for you, Phil, but it is to us! Shame on you for depriving the world of a company bearing your name. Or face. Or a stylistic impression of your chewing gum.

Makes sense as the previous title was co-developed with Korean dev Phantagram doing most of the heavy lifting — and with Mizuguchi doing the interviews.

Announced last year at Microsoft's TGS press conference, N3 II will supposedly be developed primarily by Microsoft development arm Feelplus. No word if Mizuguchi will be wrangled in for press junkets.

So, what is Mizuguchi doing these days? It seems he's working on a project with Atari. Atari? But wait, think about it. Phil Harrison is at Atari. SingStar boss Paulina Bozek is now at Atari. (Hello head hunting!) This could actually be interesting. Almost as interesting as that hat he's wearing.

[Pic]

Speaking in an interview with MCV, Harrison calls into question Kotick's reasoning behind the decision not to publish the eagerly anticipated and long overdue movie tie-in, indicating a strong desire to make Bob eat his words.

“What Bobby, perhaps unhelpfully said, was that those games were franchises which wouldn’t make $100m of revenue and generate sequels. If that’s his benchmark, then fine – and we’d love to aspire to the same benchmarks. But you know what? I would love to turn Ghostbusters into a $100m franchise, just to prove him wrong.”

Ah yes, that's the Phil Harrison we know and love. He might no longer be with Sony, but he certainly didn't leave his balls behind.

Harrison: We'll prove Activision wrong [MCV]

This line of banter isn't new from Phil. Back in 2006, while still an exec at Sony, Harrison told Wired: "I'd be amazed if the PlayStation 4 has a physical disc drive." All arrows do point to a physical media-free future. And that's kind of sad, you know?

Harrison: New Generation Will Never Buy Physical Media [EDGE] [Pic]

This elegant solution to the used game market comes courtesy of Atari's President Phil Harrison, who explains that Atari's ongoing strategy is such that the resales aren't something the company is worried about.

"The games that have the embedded community, the embedded commerce, the extended, expandable experiences, are the one's that you would never want to trade, the one's you want to keep hold of. And that's perfectly in line with our future strategy so we're not that concerned about it"

No why does this all sound so familiar? Why of course! It's Game 3.0! That Phil is a man who stands by his plans.

Second hand sales have been "extremely painful" for the industry - Atari [GamesIndustry.biz]

Atari revealed its intentions to revisit and resuscitate some of its better known properties at a press conference in the UK today, pointing to some of its most beloved hits as a focus for 2010 and beyond. The rebounding publisher diverted focus to its next-year line-up, according to Eurogamer, which includes Ghostbusters, The Witcher for consoles and the recently announced Ready 2 Rumble Revolution.

While Atari's been supporting Neverwinter Nights 2 in the form of expansion packs, the Baldur's Gate series has been quiet since the release of Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, with the spin-off series Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance petering out in 2004. Sequels to both would be very welcome, my new Atari overlords.

We suppose the only question is: who's going to develop the next Baldur's Gate? BioWare, now owned by EA, has already moved on to its own "spiritual successor" Dragon Age.

As far as another Test Drive, Developer Eden Games is rumored to have already started work on a sequel to Test Drive Unlimited as of earlier this year.

Atari to revisit Baldur's, Test Drive [Eurogamer]

Says Atari exec Phil Harrison, "Ghostbusters: The Video Game is a fantastic addition to Atari’s global line-up in 2009. ..The title has built considerable anticipation and excitement among game fans for its high quality action and all-out mayhem... There's no more thrilling Ghostbusting experience to be had, short of building your own proton pack." Damn skippy. Picking this up was a smart move Atari. Just hope it's as good as I imagine it.

Atari picks up Ghostbusters [Games Industry]

Here is my EUR 10 million gift to this room — all of the mistakes I have made in software development have been based around one problem and one problem alone, which is accelerating through this pipeline without successfully and properly satisfying the requirements of each of the stages - and typically it involves going from concept to production in one jump...

That's pretty much the definition of why projects fail — because you don't know what you're building, you don't know how you're going to build it, you don't know who you're building it for, but you've got 60 people working on it and they've all running in different directions — that's how most games fail.

Phil Harrison is a smart man. Sony's loss is Atari's gain. You know what else Phil Harrison is? Tall, that's what, he's tall.

Phil Harrison: It's time for a change in games development [Games Industry] [Pic]

This is a significant step in expanding Atari’s online game development capability. Paulina is one of the industry’s most respected creative leaders with an outstanding track-record of commercial and creative success and I’m delighted that she will bring her unique vision, consumer insight and proven ability for creating amazing entertainment experiences to Atari.

Hit the jump for the press release.

INFOGRAMES ANNOUNCES THE APPOINTMENT OF PAULINA BOZEK AS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR OF NEW ONLINE GAME STUDIO

- Award-Winning Game Director Of $500 Million, 15 Million Unit-Selling SingStar® Franchise to Lead New Online Game Development Team at Atari, Based In London -

LONDON, UK – 8 September 2008 – Infogrames Entertainment, under its consumer brand Atari, today announces the formation of a new in-house game development studio under the creative and production leadership of Paulina Bozek, one of the games industry’s most pioneering and successful producers. At Atari, Paulina will apply her outstanding production and development skills to establish a new game development team and studio based in London. The new studio will focus on innovating and developing mass-market consumer games and services for online-enabled devices including Personal Computers and game consoles.

“This is a significant step in expanding Atari’s online game development capability,” said Phil Harrison, President of Infogrames. “Paulina is one of the industry’s most respected creative leaders with an outstanding track-record of commercial and creative success and I’m delighted that she will bring her unique vision, consumer insight and proven ability for creating amazing entertainment experiences to Atari.”

“I am very excited to be joining Atari at this pivotal time for both the company and the industry,” said Paulina Bozek. “There is a huge opportunity as gaming platforms become more ubiquitous, more connected and attract more mainstream audiences. Atari has a great vision for the future and I can’t wait to start realising that vision in new products and services.”

For the past 6 years Paulina has been Executive Producer and Game Director of the multi-award winning SingStar franchise on PlayStation®2 and PLAYSTATION®3 at Sony Computer Entertainment’s London Studio. SingStar has achieved combined sales of over 15 Million units and life-time revenue of approximately $500M (measured at retail and online worldwide). The most recent version of SingStar on PLAYSTATION 3 incorporates a variety of online innovations including integrated commerce, community and user-generated content services.

The new Atari studio will initially be located in Hammersmith, west London and will recruit industry-leading technical, creative and production resources, both as in-house employees and externally contracted resources.

About Paulina Bozek:

Paulina started her career in games in 1999 at Ubisoft in Montreal, Canada where she worked with a small team to launch and project manage GameLoft.com, Ubisoft’s then online portal of game services and communities. In 2003, she joined Sony’s London Studio and was appointed as the Producer of SingStar shortly afterwards, over-seeing the production and creative direction of the Franchise. Since its release, the SingStar Franchise has been instrumental in establishing games as popular entertainment for mainstream audiences.

Paulina is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the first ever BAFTA Interactive New Talent Award in 2004. In 2007, she was listed in the Top 10 rising stars of the Media field on the ‘Courvoisier Future 500 List.’ And in 2008 Mangagement Today listed Paulina in its annual list of top ’35 women under 35’ in British Business. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Studies and an MSc in Media & Communications from the London School of Economics.

About Infogrames Entertainment and Atari:
The Infogrames group, including the Atari brand, is a global producer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment software for all market segments and all interactive game platforms including consoles from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, advanced smartphones, Personal Computers, web and online. Its games are sold in more than 60 countries through an international distribution network and direct to consumers via www.atari.com.

Atari’s extensive catalogue of popular games is based on original franchises (Alone in the Dark, Test Drive, V-Rally, My Horse & Me, Backyard Sports franchise, Total Annihilation, Outcast etc.), publishing properties (The Witcher, Legendary, Race Pro etc.), international licenses (Dragon Ball Z, Dungeons & Dragons, Jamie Oliver etc.) and classic games covering the entire history of the video game industry (Pong, Missile Command, Asteroids etc).

Paulina Bozek leaves Sony to join Atari [VG247] [Pic]

He could see he was about to get involved in another PlayStation cycle, and obviously wanted something new. The same thing was happening again and he’d been through it enough times to want to move on.

May be true, may not be true, either way, it's a possibility. We're just surprised Sony took so long to get started on the PS4, seeing as companies normally start on their next console as soon as they're finished the last one.

Rumour: Looming PS4 cycle was real reason for Harrison’s departure from Sony [VG247] [Pic]

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