Phil Harrison will be missed. His groundbreaking "Game 3.0" keynote at GDC showed Sony's exciting and innovative ways forward in the online community. After accusing Sony Japan of not being forward-thinking regarding the online sector, he left Sony and joined Atari.
Harrison's message wasn't simply the creation of marketing folk, however. He genuinely believed in online communities, and without his support, LittleBigPlanet wouldn't be the game it is today. According to Alex Evans, one of the co-founders of Media Molecule, "[Phil's] influence on the game early on ... was hugely useful to have." The development team was focused on the gameplay, but it was Harrison that talked about the online potential LittleBigPlanet had. "He was very instrumental in telling us to think about what it would mean to have user-generated content - to think about what that means for the community."














Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-26-2008 @ 1:12PM
GP said...
Go Phil! They should have a bobble head sack person of Phil in the game. That would be ummm.... cool? NOT!
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6-26-2008 @ 1:16PM
Devin said...
Phil will be missed......
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6-26-2008 @ 1:19PM
MexicanTerrorist said...
LittleBigPlanet FTW.
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6-26-2008 @ 1:40PM
reson8er said...
I miss Phil, he was a very positive influence in the Playstation world. Lets all hope things can move in the directions he envisioned while at Sony.
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6-26-2008 @ 2:58PM
Popfrogs said...
I can't see him making much money at Atari. Since 1997 they've redefined failboat.
6-26-2008 @ 4:09PM
reson8er said...
^^
Yeah it was *very* surprising to me that he went to Atari, after being so successful at Sony. In my opinion he took a major downward career move. Not to mention Atari is constantly ion danger of going under as a company and constantly runs at a loss.
6-26-2008 @ 4:19PM
adolson said...
What you guys say is all true - but if Phil can somehow turn around Atari, it could be one of the best moves he's made... I'd love nothing more than to see Atari's name mean something again. Maybe he is up to that challenge, and maybe that challenge is worth more than financial reward? Who really knows. It'd be neat to hear from him, honestly and openly, about why he went to Atari.
6-26-2008 @ 6:34PM
Lars said...
I thought he went to Infogrames?
Yeah, they recently bought the Atari name, but that's kinda like saying someone went to ABC when they got a job at Disney.
I could be wrong though... but I coulda sworn it was Infogrames, not Atari.
6-26-2008 @ 3:14PM
Ash said...
phil use to actually make boring keynotes interesting. GO PHIL
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6-26-2008 @ 7:06PM
Fraser JK said...
Agreed! I think Phil was pushing Sony in a right direction, but like he said, working with them was a pain. Can't really blame the man!
I thought the 'war' was over ages ago until Harrison and Moore left their companies? WTF!
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6-26-2008 @ 7:07PM
PolishBoy said...
okay can every body shut the fuck up ? this game is being shown for 2 fuckin years and still shit happened so please just wait till this shit comes out
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6-27-2008 @ 3:50AM
Cornerman8 said...
I like Phil. Actually, I like all the Sony execs. I know everyone harks on them for making promises, and forecasts, and bold statements, but they're public persona leads me to believe they're okay. Sure maybe they ask for it sometimes. But I feel like gamers are so excited and/or passionate that sometimes we over-analyze the things developers/execs say. We're the only industry that I know of that's that critical and that invested. We're the only industry I know of that has a term "fanboy" lol. Through it all I think they mean well...even the fanboys...sometimes.
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