THE BRIT LIST: INDUSTRY LEGENDS PHIL HARRISON, XBOX
THOUGH he is now deputy for one of the biggest tech firms in the world, Harrison’s career in video games started at a grassroots level. Motivated by the riches that the games industry could yield, he became one of the many bedroom programmers that came out of the Amiga and Commodore 64 era. “I was somewhat influenced by the fact that my friend and games developer John Marshall was driving a sports car to school aged 17 – so I left school at 16 and decided to give this ‘games thing’ a go,” he says. “I started programming, graphics and animation for games on 8-bit home computers like the Oric 1 and Commodore 64 in the 1980s when I was still at school.
“My first published work was an inch worm animation in a game called Insect Insanitywritten by John in 1984. I worked as a freelancer at various UK software houses – who calls them that anymore? – including Probe, System 3 and Vivid Image before joining Mindscape in 1989.” In 1992, Harrison made the jump to Sony, which was about to get into console games with the original PlayStation. It was here that he met Ken Kutaragi. “Ken Kutaragi was a significant influence on me during my time at Sony. He really could see the future,” he explains.
During his time at Sony, he was behind the launch of the first three
PlayStation consoles, before joining Atari in 2010, turning the firm into a digital and online games specialist. Harrison then helped set-up the investment firm London Venture Partners, before returning to the console space in 2012, this time with Xbox.
And Harrison’s desire to create excellent and commercially successful video games remains. “My goal is to help smart creative and technical people turn their dreams and visions into reality and make a difference to people’s lives,” he explains.
“Now that I have two young children, I am seeing the digital world again through their eyes and that is incredibly inspiring. I would like to build something that amazes them with a digital world they can escape to and in- turn inspires them.
“The most consistent source of influence or inspiration has been the brilliant visionary game creators I have worked with over the past 25 years. The amazing thing about this business is the incredible minds it attracts and I have been very lucky to work with so many – too many to list here and, of course, unfair to miss out any but I hope they know who they are.” And reflecting on his success, Harrison concludes: “I always hoped and pushed for games to go from teenage hobby
Ken Kutaragi was a significant influence on me during my time at Sony. He really could see the future. Phil Harrison, Microsoft
“
Harrison began in video games as a bedroom coder. He made his first game Insect Insanity (left) in 1984
to broad entertainment medium and I think we have achieved that. “I hope that one day games will be considered more as an art form with a cultural impact as important as film or TV – rather than being considered ‘tech’, games can and should be ‘culture’.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52