Phil Harrison No Longer Atari President

Keane Ng

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Sep 11, 2008
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Phil Harrison No Longer Atari President



Phil Harrison will step down from his position as president of Atari as the company shifts its operations to the US, though he will remain part of the Atari board of directors.

A little over a year after Infogrames announced his appointment as president of Atari, Phil Harrison is stepping down from the position. This isn't because the former Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios head and official Dr. Manhattan of the games industry was doing a bad job, but because Atari has shifted the focus of its business to the US while Namco-Bandai and Sony handle its European operations.

Harrison will take on a non-executive role as a member of the board of directors. "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," Atari said. "As all board members, he will continue to assist, support and guide the company's strategy."

Nevertheless the idea of a more general "company strategy" job must come as something of a disappointment to Harrison, who had hoped to play a central role in guiding the struggling company to "create amazing network games and community experiences for players the world over."

Infogrames recently reported a net loss of $319.33 million for the fiscal year that ended in March, an increase from the $72.7 million loss from last year. The increase comes as a result of the dramatic structural changes the company underwent, as well as "losses from discontinued operations due to the exit of its distribution business in Europe and Asia."

[Via Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23821]]


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shMerker

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Oct 24, 2007
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harhol said:
I didn't realise Infogrames still existed...
Yeah, they've been using the Atari name fore pretty much everything for a while now, because it's a name that people actually recognize, as opposed to Infogrames, which most people don't even pronounce properly (the s is silent).
 

tendo82

Uncanny Valley Cave Dweller
Nov 30, 2007
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They must be in dire financial straights because I don't think Harrison even had a chance to do anything, much less fail at anything in the brief time he was president.
 

Andy_Panthro

Man of Science
May 3, 2009
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I'd appreciate it if they would re-release some of their back catalogue through Good Old Games. Think I may be waiting a long while for that though!

Doubt a new president will make any difference to that though. In fact, I suspect there will be very little change from our point of view.
 

CymTyr

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Mar 22, 2009
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I don't even know who this guy is... didn't realize he was the president of Atari...

I did not know Atari shares the same parent company as Namco-Bandai... I have a very low opinion of NB but I like Atari, though they don't always put out the best product.
 

Royas

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Apr 25, 2008
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He's also famous for claiming that digital distribution will be completely taking over retail distribution. Just a bit optimistic, I'm thinking. Which is a polite way of saying he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.
 

Kyp

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Feb 13, 2009
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Good, maybe we'll start seeign some good new single player forgotten realms RPGs again...

They do still have the license, right?

Oh man, Baldur's Gate 3 wouldn't that be nice