| 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".
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