Phil Harrison is a name that many industry enthusiasts probably remember- he used to work at Sony, overseeing their game studios for 15 years, before leaving the company shortly after the launch of the PS3. He went on to get a job at Microsoft, where he was on board during the launch of the Xbox One- before he quit that role too.

Now, he has announced the next step in his career- he is going to be working at Google. He confirmed this in a tweet today, also confirming that he would be moving back to California for the new role. While what that role is isn’t known for now, it’s not unreasonable to suppose that it might have to do with games, given his background- and specifically, with games as a service and monetization, given his preferences for those styles of games.

Whatever his new role is, we wish him the best, and we hope that good things come out of it.

[MCV UK]

Microsoft will possibly suffer a blow in the coming weeks and months with the imminent departure of one of their most important figureheads. Mr Phil Harrison, the corporate VP of Xbox in Europe, has been confirmed to be leaving the company.

Rumours of his departure first came onto the scene in March of this year during GDC, but it has now been confirmed that, “Phil Harrison has chosen to pursue business interests outside of Microsoft”. The current head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has released a statement on the matter wherein he said, “Phil has been a distinguished leader for our European Xbox team – overseeing production at our award-winning European studios and making a substantial contribution to the Xbox business globally. I want to thank Phil for his creativity and leadership over the past three years. Phil is a great friend of mine and I wish him the very best with his future endeavours.”

Mr Harrison has spoken about his departure in his own statement which he released to GamesIndustry, in which he said, “I have enjoyed the last three years at Microsoft enormously and it has been a privilege to lead and work along side the incredible talent within Microsoft Studios in Europe, including Rare, Lionhead, Lift, Soho and Press Play. I wish them and my many friends throughout the Xbox world every continued success and know that games will continue to prosper across Microsoft under Phil Spencer’s leadership.”

Previously he has worked on PlayStation with Sony, so it will be interesting to see where he will head next.

Take this with a massive grain of salt but Games Industry International is citing several unnamed sources that claim corporate VP Phil Harrison, leader of Microsoft Studios Europe, is currently planning to leave the company. This is due to Harrison becoming frustrated after former Xbox head Don Mattrick left in 2013. The frustration apparently grew further when it was discovered that Phil Spencer was promoted to head of Xbox over him.

Microsoft has already offered its official statement to GameSpot, stating that it doesn’t discuss “rumour or speculation”. However, it’s currently believed that Harrison gave an ultimatum to the company to offer a better position or else he would walk. As it stands, sources are leaning towards Harrison leaving.

Again, it’s a rumour but it’s interesting to note that one of the developers under Harrison in Europe, namely Lift London, was set to merge with Soho Productions. Other studios like Lionhead and Rare haven’t exactly been at the top tier of AAA development for Xbox which could have further frustrated Harrison. Regardless, we’ll update you with more information as it becomes available.

Microsoft’s ID@Xbox indie development program for the Xbox One may be a vast improvement over the company’s initial stance – which represented a big middle finger to self publishing – but the company has come under fire from indie devs for its launch parity clause in the same.

Xbox vice president Phil Harrison spoke about the same to EDGE stating that, “Taking aside competitive positioning and all of that, the winners in all of this are game players. There are more games coming out for these platforms, there are more developers creating for these platforms, there are more fresh minds coming into our industry than any time in recent memory. And that’s so, so important to the future of our industry.”

Could the parity clause be removed in the near future? “It’s difficult to debate these kind of commercial relationships in a media interview so you’ll forgive me for not going into the details. What I would say is that everybody in our program, whether it’s a developer or people on the platform side working with Chris [Charla, ID@Xbox boss] is committed to making sure the best games are on Xbox One.

“That’s our job, basically, if you boil it all down to the essence of what a game platform is, it’s to make sure that the biggest, best, most exciting, most creative games are on your platform and we are working super hard to make that happen.”

Do you think the parity clause should be repealed in the coming months? Let us know in the comments.

Microsoft’s Xbox One console comes with a litany of features including SmartGlass, Kinect, DVR and much more, but according to corporate vice president Phil Harrison, the company has five new features to be revealed for each feature already showcased.

Speaking to OXM, Harrison stated that, “When you’ve been around for a long time, you know what platforms are like. The games you celebrate and are proud of in the first year, when you look back at them from the perspective of ten years from now; you’d be amazed at the difference. It’s a combination of the tools getting better, developers beginning to understand the unique architecture to work with.

“Crucially this time around, there’s the power of the cloud and what that means for game design. That can grow and scale indefinitely – of course there is a practical limit but in effect you’re uncapped. And I think, from a player’s perspective, that’s the most exciting part; that it’s not just about the chips in the box under the television or wherever you position your console of choice, it’s about what the platform will provide you with over time. We’ve not had that in a console generation before.”

“There are more ideas and vision for what games can be than available time to build them into the launch games. So for every feature you’ve seen in the launch titles – SmartGlass, GameDVR, use of voice with Kinect – there are five features in the queue waiting to come out, either in an update or a sequel or in a future version of a game. The kind of creative and technical innovation that we’re seeing in the industry – it’s a really good time.”

Are you satisfied with the Xbox One’s features? Have they added more innovation to games like Dead Rising 3, Forza Motorsport 5 and Ryse: Son of Rome? Let us know in the comments below.

Microsoft corporate vice president Phil Harrison revealed that there will be a difficulty in receiving stock until Christmas, though the company is working hard to alleviate that. “Our job on a tactical level is to ensure we get enough supply to retailers and customers as we possibly can to meet demand, and that will be a struggle but we are doing our best,” stated Harrison in conversation with MCV.

“There will be difficulty getting stock through until Christmas but we will do everything we can to accelerate that. And then from a software point-of-view on our services, that are constantly upgrading, we will continue to innovate there. From a games and product point-of-view, we have a very strong line-up for the year ahead. So this is really just one day in the calendar and then tomorrow it is back to work. We have some big games to bring to market in the first quarter and beyond.”

With the release of Dead Rising 3, Forza Motorsport 5, Ryse: Son of Rome and Killer Instinct among many other games, what are your thoughts on the Xbox One thus far? Let us know below.

Speaking to MCV, Harrison stated that, “The way in which you keep the market fresh is keep the technology fresh and keep the development ecosystem growing so that new and exciting experiences are coming out. And with Xbox One using the power of cloud we can add features, we can add functionality, we can have performance increases over time. I think that will keep the platform very fresh over a long period of time.

“On a macro-global scale, the world is clearly moving in a digital direction. It is, I think, an unstoppable, inexorable momentum. We are going to see the world be truly digital. But with Xbox One we quite correctly give people choice. They can consume and play games on disc, and get all the benefits of that. Or they can consume games digitally. Remember our games will launch day-and-date on both digital and physical, so it’s up to the user to choose which medium they want and have the benefits of either method.”

The Xbox One will launch on November 22nd across 13 territories. Are you convinced of the benefits of the Cloud, seen in games like Forza Motorsport 5? Let us know in the comments.

“Well I think there’s a couple of things I would say, one is that every platform I’ve ever been involved in somebody has said ‘oh, this has got more gigaflops or more teraflops than the other one,’ and at the end of the day it never really matters. It’s all about having the best games and having the most impressive experiences, and clearly Xbox One has the best games. So that would be my first response.

“The other is that any time that you ask a developer – including, by the way, our own internal studios – in the run up to launch of a console you’re going to get a slightly nuanced answer because the operating system’s not finished, the performance of the machine’s not locked, and as you may be aware we can increase CPU and GPU capability on Xbox One.

“So I think it’s impossible to draw any conclusions from that based on pre-launch unfinished hardware and unfinished operating systems. My main response is going to be always that it’s about having the best game experiences and the widest possible set of content that people want to play.”

Considering the launch line-up for both platforms, which includes first party and third party titles, both the Xbox One and PS4 are certainly doing their damnedest to provide consumers with games they want to play. Which one will you be going for? Let us know below.

So does Valve pose a threat to Microsoft’s future plans? Phil Harrison, corporate VP of the Xbox division believes it is too early to comment on.

“To be honest, it’s too early to tell, I don’t have enough facts to properly evaluate it yet. I don’t know their approach, I don’t know enough about their business model, or their financials and so on,” he said in an interview with CVG.

However he applauds Valve for making smart moves in the industry and how, in a way, it validates Microsoft’s approach with the Xbox One.

“But, Valve is clearly a smart company. I admire what they do, I admire how they do it. I would add though, that their approach helps validate ours. The biggest screen in the house is the living room, the console which you have connected to that is also usually connected to the most sophisticated sound system. That’s the centre of gravity for games in the home,” he added.

Do you agree with Harrison’s notion? Furthermore do you think Microsoft will ever bring those initial features back on Xbox One? Sound off in the comments section below.

“It’s also about cloud processing and AI. This is where some of the computational effort of a game can be offloaded to the dedicated CPUs on the cloud, to make your game experience even better, better graphics, better lighting, better physics. This is an example of where we think the the cloud is going to push the next generation of game development in new and creative ways, that will make the experience even more better.”

Harrison also believed that the Cloud will help keep consoles relevant, even as PCs become more powerful. Will Microsoft’s server farms be enough to support visual improvements for so many consoles and games over several years at a time? That remains to be seen, but at the very least, you won’t need to worry about games looking visually inferior down the line.