For the weekend directly leading up to the E3 event, it sure was jampacked with news, wasn't it? If you've been hanging around the industry for a while now, you'd know that the usual occurrence during this time of the year (or whenever there is an event, actually), is to have some kind of drought in news. But no, not this year. Everyone's just as pumped up about the upcoming event, it didn't matter if the news that came out were more on the rumors and speculations and "leaks" side. We don't mind. We know we're in for the big stuff. Are you ready?

Last year, Phil Harrison made quite a ruckus when he severed ties with SCEI as their president, and then jumping on board Atari's team, via parent company Infogrames,  to serve as President. Today, however, we receive word that he will be stepping down from the position, and will assume instead a non-executive Director role.

Atari President Phil Harrison wants to prove Activision wrong for dropping Ghostbusters like a hot potato when it merged with Blizzard, saying he wants to turn the video game into a US$ 100 million franchise. So much for Atari's goal to be "just an online company," and I couldn't be happier for them. Go Harrison!

Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts, doesn't get what Sony's trying to do with PlayStation Home. Are they trying to compete with Second Life, or are they trying to bag the tech-savvy gamers who like to have an active virtual social life?

Either way, it doesn't sound like he has high hopes for it.

Former Sony creative lead Phil Harrison looks back at his old company and sees how it has done since he left. He shares a few words on Home and how community platforms will find a bright future in gaming.

The end of physical media is nigh! That's according to Phil Harrison, at least. See, he's "pretty confident [kids] will never buy a physical media product" in the future - that's counting CDs, DVDs, games in boxes... Man, could you imagine talking to your future kid? "Err, daddy what's a dee-vee-dee? Daddy, is it a title of an emo song?"

Tetsuya Mizuguchi (of Lumines, Rez fame) just loves our news blog so much that he's decided to name his upcoming game after our site! (Or... not.) Whatever the case, Atari's recent press conference had former Sony bigwig Phil Harrison handle the proceedings. Some of the biggest news they've announced in the event involves Tetsuya Mizuguchi's latest rhythm game and the upcoming Ghostbusters multi-platform title's release window.

For such a highly anticipated game like LittleBigPlanet, it's understandable that its delay caused quite a stir... to put it mildly. Sony sticks by its decision though, saying that "it's about respect." Anyway, the game's here now, right? No worries.

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The LittleBigControversy continues as Phil Harrison tells GamesIndustry that he believes "Sony took absolutely the right decision" to recall LittleBigPlanet over the controversial Qur'an references in the in-game music. As former president of Sony Worldwide Studios and one of those who saw LittleBigPlanet right from the start, Harrison gives us his thoughts as to why the recall was a good call.

Phil Harrison, former Sony exec and current Atari president, said in a keynote speech that most games that fail in development do so because studios rush it through the development process.

And the lesson to gamers is: if you pressure devs to come out with a product too fast, they may end up giving you a sub-standard game.

More wisdom from Harrison after the link.