Phil Harrison chez Infogrames

Comme attendu, Phil Harrison débarque chez Infogrames en tant que Directeur Général Délégué histoire de filer un coup de main à  David Gardner.

Eh be ! En voilà  du beau monde qui arrive à  Lyon ! Croiserai-je Jade au Carrefour Part Dieu ? Mystère!

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”