Atari's Harrison U-Turns on Single-Player Games

Now they're "relevant going forward"

Posted by Staff
Atari's Harrison U-Turns on Single-Player Games
Phil Harrison, president of Atari and former head of Sony's Worldwide Studios, has made an U-turn on his attitude towards single-player games.

Having said of Atari, "I don't see that we're going to be making huge-budget, single-player games in the future", Harrison has gone on to qualify his statement.

Speaking in an interview, he said, "I think the single-player, disconnected console game is probably in its dotage. Now, that doesn’t mean that those games aren’t relevant going forwards, but they will be enhanced by community features being embedded in them, or downloadable content becoming an inherent part of the experience, or some kind of user-generated content will be part of the experience."

It looks suspiciously to SPOnG like Phil's had a smack on the wrist. Rather than having fallen off Atari's radar altogether, single-player games are now, “relevant going forwards”. We can see why he might have had to make that about-turn, since Atari's biggest upcoming title, Alone in the Dark, appears to have no online functionality or multi-player mode...

For more on Alone in the Dark, check out SPOnG's dedicated game page.

Source: videogaming247
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Comments

SuperSaiyan4 27 May 2008 12:07
1/6
Krazy Ken at Sony got much worse than a slap on the wrist he got demoted twice...And already Phil leaves (or maybe got the sack from Sony? For talking tripe and now he begins at Atari why do all Sony people talk s**t??
Its ironic that he would leave the PS3 side of things where it was going no where for gaming then joins an absolutely useless company that is Atari only to blow his mouth off I am like wtf??? It is rather funny though.
Horatio 27 May 2008 13:07
2/6
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
It is rather funny though.


Not half as funny as the manure that falls from your fingertips though, eh SS4?
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schnide 27 May 2008 13:22
3/6
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
Krazy Ken at Sony got much worse than a slap on the wrist he got demoted twice...And already Phil leaves (or maybe got the sack from Sony? For talking tripe and now he begins at Atari why do all Sony people talk s**t??quote]

I often read Spong from work, which isn't unfortunately what I get paid to do so I have to keep it in a minimised browser. I read this story then quickly scrolled down to the comments. And because it was in a minimised window I could only see the comments at first, and not who actually posted.

And do you know, I could tell it was you without looking?
deleted 27 May 2008 14:54
4/6
Harrison talks b******s pretty much 99.999999999% of the time, and am starting to believe his knowledge of the games industry is what some 14 year old sony fanboy neighbour tells him!
Horatio 27 May 2008 15:02
5/6
haritori wrote:
Harrison talks b******s pretty much 99.999999999% of the time, and am starting to believe his knowledge of the games industry is what some 14 year old sony fanboy neighbour tells him!


Ouch. Harrison does make the odd gaff but he must have talked some truth in his career so far to get where he is. Either that or he is an incredibly good liar. Personally I think it's the former but I do confess to having some doubts about his sanity recently.

Do you really think SS4 is a 14 yr old sony fanboy? I'm having trouble deciding. I'm thinking he is slightly older but a little... erm.... basic (!) in the mind. But I can't work out his format allegiance. It's possibly to the ill-fated Phantom?
deleted 27 May 2008 16:30
6/6
Horatio wrote:
haritori wrote:
Harrison talks b******s pretty much 99.999999999% of the time, and am starting to believe his knowledge of the games industry is what some 14 year old sony fanboy neighbour tells him!


Ouch. Harrison does make the odd gaff but he must have talked some truth in his career so far to get where he is. Either that or he is an incredibly good liar. Personally I think it's the former but I do confess to having some doubts about his sanity recently.

Do you really think SS4 is a 14 yr old sony fanboy? I'm having trouble deciding. I'm thinking he is slightly older but a little... erm.... basic (!) in the mind. But I can't work out his format allegiance. It's possibly to the ill-fated Phantom?


Im going for Gizmondo!
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