Phil Harrison joins Microsoft

[Woolen Horde]

Yup, that Phil Harrison (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/technologybrierdudleysblog/2017740378_microsoft_hires_former_sony_ga.html)

[Juste]

Yeah, he did such sterling work with Atari/Infogrames so this will be a great success.

[Brakara]

Well, this job description at Microsoft sounds more similar to what he did at Sony, than at Atari where he was supposed to save Titanic after it hit the iceberg.

And at least at MS he should have the resources to get things done. But, who knows, maybe he'll just be cashing in whatever money MS is throwing at him. We'll see.

[Wendelius]

EG quotes analysts who think it's to prop up the 360 in Europe and leverage his contacts (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-14-why-microsoft-signed-up-phil-harrison):


... IDC Research manager Lewis Ward suggested to GamesIndustry International that the high profile appointment of Harrison as head of Microsoft's European Game Studios last week is part of a drive to improve the console's performance on these shores by leveraging the Brit's local contacts.

"Microsoft has a significantly smaller Xbox 360 installed base in Western Europe than it does in North America and Phil Harrison may be able to help drive additional sales there partly through ramping up more third party game and content/video partnerships," he said.

David Cole of DFC Intelligence echoed that sentiment.

"I think the biggest impact of Phil Harrison will be increasing the European business. Microsoft has been very strong in North America, not so strong in Europe," he said.

"I think there is a huge opportunity for MS to expand its core Europe business and that is where Phil may have the strongest impact. That is a huge potential growth opportunity for the Xbox platform."

Billy Pidegeon from M2 Research added that Harrison might help Microsoft pick up more development talent on the continent in the run up to the next round of console tech.

...
Seems to make sense.

Wendelius

[pyjamarama]

Always thought that Microsoft obsessed over Japan and invested a lot of money there in trying to succeed and treated Europe as it was the same as North America. Outside of the UK Microsoft loses to Sony in every European country this is because Sony actually invested in almost all countries with localization support and ads, most of MS services work on only a few country's and they pay little attention to markets specific needs, this seems crazy because MS actually has a presence in all country's thanks to Windows and Office, but maybe that works against them because there local teams really don't know nothing about consumer entertainment and are all about business, Sony being a consumer company provided much better services. This looks like a smart move if they want to turn things around in Europe.