Harrison says oui to Atari

I've had respect for him, and now I have a lot more respect. He still wants to make waves, looking at a sinking ship as an opportunity is risky, but also awesome if you can re-float it.

This 3 guys (Gardner, Harrison and Wilson) aren t there for money. They have strong passion for the atari brand and they know the great potentiel of this factory to revolution the world video game market.

I can see him pulling Atari through to become a decent developer again, best of luck, Phil.

whats wrong with this guy.. dude, sony needs ya much more.. why goes to atari? let me guess, higher salary?

Let's see what he can do with Atari!

Good luck with this one, yo. You'll need it.

Drand,I like everyone here remembers Atari and will never fogret the mark on history they've left. I still wouldn't mind playing a Lynx handheld or wouldn't mind playing a 2600 VCS again(Which I haven't played in 11 years.) But fact of the matter is that they're gone and all that's left is Infogrames who COULD make a great game if they tried. It's too bad there gone, I also miss Coleco and Mattel Electronics. But SEGA is the only surviving former console maker that IS still very much alive today henceforth they have a better chance at ever returning to the console market.

If you're a developer who dislikes maintenance work, and only wants to create new products, then you've found the right place! Join Atari and help create games that are incomplete, bug ridden, and have no support. In fact, when you come to work for Atari, you'll never have to worry about finishing a product, fixing a bug, or taking the blame for anything wrong with the game ever again! Why? Because we want to be the biggest (not best) and model our business after the most excellent example set forth from EA. :)

Its very likely that the publicity alone derived from this move will be to the benefit of Atari. Mr. Harrison has a point with it being an industry brand name, all these years- and stirring the kettle in this manner has at least bought my interest in the wellfare of Atari for the remainder of this fiscal year...

...Atari has the most extra lives I've ever seen.....

You can second guess his decision - and it IS easy to second guess a decision you weren't involved in - but when you think about it, it IS only the sinking ships that need saving. Sony will be fine without him, but his new employer represents the sort of challenge that truly ambitious execs love. If he fails, everyone will call it inevitable and like most execs at his level, he'll land on his feet somewhere else. But if he succeeds, he becomes a legend and will be in an excellent position to wield considerable personal influence and restore much needed credibility to a once respected publisher. Looking at his career so far it seems like a challenge that was hard to resist.

I hope Atari brings out a new system thats bw compatible with the 2600.

poor Harrison... I'd be shocked if he could fumble anything special with Infogrames or Atari in the next few years :|

I've never heard about this guy until the press conferences...... he's a good speaker though and really stands out from the other boring speakers out there.

The guy has all the money in the world that one man needs and for some reason he found a lost puppy and took some time off work to nurse it back to health. PS3 is fine. It doesn't matter who you have running Sony because the crappy defective Xbox 360's (3 coffins myself) sells Playstation3's on its own. Now that HD DVD is DEAD! and Blu-Ray is the clear winner, all this man has chosen to do is climb a different mountain. Give the guy a break. Maybe some pro-bono work over at Atari might salvage that wreck, because face it, The Witcher stunk. I mean who re-releases the same game months after its first arrival and rename it because the second title actually contains the finished game? Things like that won't happen with Phil. As for Sony, every time a 360 dies a Playstation3 is born. Im a born-again Playstationier myself. Bought a new Plasma to celebrate my divorce with microsoft. Im sure loving my 50" plasma. And Blu Ray has given me new reason to watch movies. As for the games, well, you got me there, but they're coming. Sooner or later they show up. Oblivion, GTA, Guitar Hero, etc. Halo3 was so boring, it was insulting. So for overall entertainment and PEACE of MIND, Playstation3 with or without Phil makes me one happy gamer. I'm not so much a Sony fanboy but Microsoft and their "I'm sorry" customer approach for the past two years made me a Microsoft hater. So I guess I'm a Sony fanboy by default. Happy red rings of death.

Harrison pulled the PS3 out of the toilet after a poor launch, so hopefully he can do the same for Atari.

I really hope Phil can turn Atari, the pioneering old-school game publisher, around again. Heh, just kidding. There's nothing "old-school" or "pioneering" about this Atari. It's just a bought name. A facade purchased by a faltering French company. Infogrames has squandered the "Atari" brand since buying it. I will give props to them for a few smart decisions like Indigo Prophecy, Test Drive Unlimited, NWN 2, and The Witcher, but for the most part it's been a comedy of errors at new-school Atari for years and years, leaning on their DBZ license like a crutch. Phil, by the gods, fix Infogrames!

I love how everyone mocked this rumor, and now he's actually at Atari. If the reason he left Sony was pay, I'm pretty sure that Atari won't do any better. I guess Phil knows best, but why the hell is he working at Atari?

I think it's obvious he saw the writing on the wall for the piece of crap that is the PS3. Future-proof schmoof.

Well there's what the new challenge we were all wondering about turned out to be. I really hope he can do what he'll be trying to with Atari, it was such an amazing company not so long ago, I'd love to see it re-surface as another of the world's leaders in gaming again.

Atari could use a new direction in its management. They haven't sent out a good game in a really long time. Though I'm not sure what he can do with the company, it will be interesting to see how this unfolds.

Interesting choice Mr. Harrison! Good luck!

I don't think anyone saw that one coming.

@acecometh Ive got to say that Phil joining atari wont make it worse since atari is already dying fast. I love atari, but they hasn't had a big hit in years, so maybe he can help them out.

Why would you leave Sony for Atari!!!???

Shame. Never again will we hear him plug "motorstorm"

after Kutaragi left, Sony has been climbing back up. Thanks to this man. Why'd he leave? I liked him. Good luck working miracles a second time there.

atari last great game of new ip was a motorcycle game on gamecube. it was underappreciated and the selling point was a demo. Its sad since it was a great underappreciated game. heck even i forgot the name of the title

I wonder where you pricks below me keep getting your outlandish sources from. PS3 sinking? Go back to the charts and look it again for 5 minutes. You all make it sound like that Harrison was solely responsible for the failures of the PS3, when it's actually a company-wide problem, not a friggin' gibberish of market nonsense. And you have the concepts backwards, Atari's the Titanic & Sony's the "oil tanker". If the guy wants to jump ship, the least he can do before leaving Atari in the later future is bring it back to a developer of some competency if not great.

I've lost respect for Phil.....well actually even before this.

even tho i am a 360/PC guy, i wish the best for this guy, looks like he can use all the help he can get.

who cares..

bmanva...Sony is not a sinking titanic...he probably saw that things were picking up and decided he wanted to take on another challenge...if anything is sinking it's M$ with their defective hardware

You wanna know why he jumped ships? It's easier to repair a sinking dinghy like Atari than a sinking titanic like Sony PS3.

Cool. I doubt he'll single-handedly turn around Atari's financial woes, but he should be a good team player for the company.

He was never a good public speaker anyway, but i wish him all the best. At last he didnt defect to microsoft...

This is good news? Would now Sony get more Atari games to the PS3 or exclusives? Will we see some returns of dead Atari games? Will they make V-Rally 4? Time will tell. At least bring back Test Drive from it's destruction.

Lets hope the best for both Phil and Atari ... they both deserve it :)

who knows maybe phill will turn ataria around lol

Talk about unexpected.

Let's see if he can make a turn around. I would like to see atari make a comeback.

Harrison at Atari? We can go ahead and kiss that company goodbye right now.

@citizenzero - Dude are you seriouse? If so then that meens that EA Sports will only make 360 games from now on. I dont really think that Harrison will give the PS3 more attention over the 360 or the Wii most likely because they are far ahead in sales and for him to do something like that when Atari is already in trouble would just mean that he will be out of a job pretty soon. All three consoles will get the same amount of games in the furture as they are now. There will be no exclusives from Atari for the 360 or the PS3 since they need to put games on everything now just to make money.

citizenzero, it is highly unlikely that this will result in a Sony partnership. Phil left Sony abruptly and on bad terms.

This is quite obvious, Atari and Sony will most likely work together closer as partners, and no i don't think he's leaving Sony entirely. People like that create partnerships not enemies which means more cashy expect loads of new titles for ps3!

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WOW!?,I knew sony game studios was in bad shape but OMG!?,nothing like from the frying pan into the fire Phil! LOL!.

After thinking it trough, I think the guy wanted new challenges. People like CEOs need challenges in life otherwise it gets boring. He wanted to go in a new direction and work with all consoles not just the PS3. That's my thought