Kaz Karai has fired Phil Harrison over his comment about Sony Japan not focusing on online play... Fired. This is certainly bad news as it seems we're in for whatever the Japanese want to do. So in other words, buy a 360 if you want to play anything online in thenext two years. Also Final Fantasy for PS3 is rumored to be bumped back to 2010... Yep.. 2010.
That's a bit harsh and surely one for the court re unfair dismissal if that is genuinely the only reason he was booted. Pathetic really :-(
Reminds me of Sega of Japan. Hey! I know! They should bring Bernie Stolar in to run Sony's US game division now (again). :nod:
It would be highly amusing if Microsoft gave him a job. Though I don't want him trying to put his Second Life nonsense on there. :noooo:
He is a big fan of the Wii, I wouldn't be surprised if he goes to big N, but then we haven't had any charismatic replacement for Peter Moore, so I would bet more on Microsoft. For Harrison moving to Atari is like shooting himself in the foot, Atari has been dead for years, even the brand doesn't mean anything to the mainstream gamer nowadays... I mean Atari developing DBZ games, what's that about?
Based on this: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=93247 I wonder if he is just frustrated over HOME etc and decided to resign. Although the short notice would seem to indicate he was pushed.
Well, you could make the argument that his comments did damage to Sony. If you were some poorly informed consumer and you heard one of the chief execs at Sony saying that the online strategy of Sony was terrible, wouldn't you be more likely to look at the Xbox 360 with favor in your buying decisions? I think everyone is right in that he already had another job lined up as this was very public career suicide.
He didn't say it was terrible though. As per usual, the media grabs hold of something and suddenly Russia is at war with Belgium and we are all going to die from ballpoint pen poisoning. He's basically blaming Sony Japan for holding back the social gaming aspects of the PS3 - i.e. delaying Home by another 6 months. It is fairly well known that he is disappointed with the Home delay, which he considered to be ready for launch last year. But he was overruled by the head honchos, who wanted to include more of a Japanese slant rather than it being solely a westernised experience.
and what were we saying about the PS3 happening again....... Yeah....... Well Kaz has proven he's as much of an asshole as his predcessor
In all likeliness, he did something else that isn't out in the open and this was more of an excuse to boot him. I'll admit that Japan isn't putting out much of interest this generation, but it's hardly any better on the other side of the pond.
Well, you were right - Phil Harrison is now President of Infogrammes. A bit like out of the frying pan and into another frying pan, to be honest. http://www.strategyinformer.com/new...il-harrison-appointed-president-of-infogrames
