SCEE's Harrison on Rare's Circling Vultures
Missed trends, too much money and secrecy blamed
Speaking to Critical Hit, Sony Computer Entertainment's President, Worldwide Studios, Phil Harrison weighed in on the subject of recent troubles at Rare.
Harrison made the comments back in November of 2006 when answering a question about the then Stamper-run developer: “Rare is traditionally a very closely held company, a very secretive company,” commented the SCE exec. “The founders, the Stamper Brothers, almost never gave interviews. They were very private individuals. In fact, before Rare, they had a company called Ultimate, which made games for the 8-bit home computers that were popular in the 1980s, like the Spectrum and the Commodore 64. I remember that their approach to journalists and reviewers was that if you want to review our game, well, you can go and buy it in the store. They had their own game publisher that was very successful.”
So where, according to Harrison, did it start to go wrong? “Then they started working for Nintendo, who were themselves a very secretive organization and so I think that they became quite insular and quite inward-facing, and they missed some of the trends that were going on in the business generally.
“Now also, if you sell your company to Microsoft and get hundreds of millions of whatevers, currency in the bank, it does tend to defocus management a little bit. But Rare, and prior to Rare, Ultimate, are responsible for some of the best games ever made. And from an industry point of view, I hope they continue to make good games, because they're an inspiration to many of us in the business. I'm sure they'll get their groove back.”
Spot on really...
Harrison made the comments back in November of 2006 when answering a question about the then Stamper-run developer: “Rare is traditionally a very closely held company, a very secretive company,” commented the SCE exec. “The founders, the Stamper Brothers, almost never gave interviews. They were very private individuals. In fact, before Rare, they had a company called Ultimate, which made games for the 8-bit home computers that were popular in the 1980s, like the Spectrum and the Commodore 64. I remember that their approach to journalists and reviewers was that if you want to review our game, well, you can go and buy it in the store. They had their own game publisher that was very successful.”
So where, according to Harrison, did it start to go wrong? “Then they started working for Nintendo, who were themselves a very secretive organization and so I think that they became quite insular and quite inward-facing, and they missed some of the trends that were going on in the business generally.
“Now also, if you sell your company to Microsoft and get hundreds of millions of whatevers, currency in the bank, it does tend to defocus management a little bit. But Rare, and prior to Rare, Ultimate, are responsible for some of the best games ever made. And from an industry point of view, I hope they continue to make good games, because they're an inspiration to many of us in the business. I'm sure they'll get their groove back.”
Spot on really...
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Comments
Bentley 5 Jan 2007 10:39
1/1
Does anyone give a monkeys what Harrison has to say anymore? The man is a clueless oaf. He may have his hooks in the industry, but he's got no clue what the gamers want. He's forgotten all about us while he looks down snobbishly from his ivory tower, trying to dictate what it is the gamer needs. We can hear you Phil but from up there, you can't hear us sniggering at your ridiculous notions. The day he gets the boot from Sony is a day I will celebrate forever.
He gives bald men a bad name. T**t.
He gives bald men a bad name. T**t.