Sony Games Chief Phil Harrison Resigns

Sony has announced Phil Harrison, president of its game development division, will resign effective February 29, with duties to be taken over by Kaz Hirai.

Sony Computer Entertainment has announced that long-time PlayStation exec Phil Harrison, president of its game development arm Sony Entertainment Worldwide Studios, will resign effective February 29. Harrison’s responsibilities will be assumed by Kaz Hirai, currently chief of Sony Computer Entertainment. Harrison will be leaving Sony after more than 15 years; he joined Sony in 1992 and held executive management positions in Sony’s European and North American businesses, including vice president, third party relations, and head of research and development for SCEA. Harrison has been involved in all the teams that developed and launched the PlayStation hardware lines.

“As one of the founding members of SCE, Phil played a key role in the development and growth of the PlayStation business and our industry,” said Sony’s Kaz Hirai, in a statement. “It is sad to see him departing from SCE, but I wish to express my gratitude for his many invaluable contributions and also wish Phil the very best of luck in his future endeavors.”

Sony said Harrison will pursue new challenges in the gaming industry, but hasn’t settled on anything definite. Rumors and industry speculation have Harrison heading to Atari.

In the last year, Harrison has been a every public face of the Sony management team touting the superiority of the PlayStation 3 and defending its high prices. However, the PS3 has taken a while to find traction in the marketplace, only beginning to catch on with consumers this last holiday season after recent configuration changes and price drops. Sony is expecting Toshiba’s recent abandonment of its HD DVD high-definition disc format to boost PS3 sales, since, in addition to being a game console, the Blu-ray equipped PS3 is arguably a future-proof upgradable Blu-ray player.