Phil Harrison rumoured to be leaving MS *spawn

[Shifty Geezer]

I haven't seen this posted but Eurogamer reported earlier that Phil Harrison is leaving Microsoft after three years. This is news to me but Eurogamer's article states:

Harrison hasn't done squat since leaving Sony. Really dropped off the radar, at least my radar. I'd like to see him return and get the room to do what he wanted to, because he seemed excellent at promoting developments but hampered by limited visions. With where Sony has gone since, I think they're part-way towards what he was wanting to head towards.

 

[tuna]

Harrison hasn't done squat since leaving Sony. Really dropped off the radar, at least my radar.

How do you know what he has and hasn't done?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Public announcements. He's appeared here and there yet not associated with anything significant. That's in stark contrast to his time at Sony where it was clear how he had greenlit some significant products as well as his enthusiasm in talking about the platform and ideas. He was a great figurehead for Sony. What did Atari accomplish during Harrison's tenure there? How did Gaikai progress in the two years he was there? He entered these positions wanting a Brave New World. He left these jobs without any notable (at least publicly broadcast) progress from when he joined.

His work at MS -
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...icrosofts-lift-london-as-its-merged-with-soho

Lift is headed up by ex-Rare veteran Lee Schuneman, and the studio's founding was directly overseen by Phil Harrison. Established as an incubator: a place for fledgling studios to take office space and be mentored whilst working on projects for Microsoft, Lift was originally intended to focus on the tablet market to support Surface, but later expanded its remit to include a wider range of projects. Indie studio Dlala was the first to take a residency, releasing Janksy for Windows 8 in late 2012, and remains the project's most celebrated alumnus.

"The studio's mission is to be bold and brave and to lift the reach of the Xbox service beyond the console," said Schuneman when Lift was announced. "If you look at the size of the tablet market today, it's measured in the hundreds of millions, and that's the area where we aspire to be."

How much has come out of Lift? Who here has even heard of Lift?!

"Even after being on the inside for a year it's still hard, but at the same time it's been over 2 years now and there's no product out in the world...which wouldn't be a problem if it was a full console launch, but when it's a studio focussed on quick turnaround mobile/tablet releases, two years feels like a really long time to not move even into soft-launch.

 

[AlNom]

Who here has even Lift?!

fixed

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Based on the studio and IP cultivation he oversaw at Sony, Phil Harrison had amazing ability to spot talent, recruit it, and act as a buffer between said talent and the bean counters and other corporate overlords in terms of preserving creative freedoms. He was almost universally praised by developers working within Sony or on Sony platforms.

I wonder whether he was permitted the same freedom and degree of control within Microsoft. We know the Bungie basically had to leave Microsoft to break free of endless Halo sequels. RARE saw huge talent excess over the years. We've seen other studios like Black Tusk have to give up their own IP to work on Gears 4. If the case, this would be contrary to his success at Sony.

 

[temesgen]

Sony really could use him, he did a wonderful job for the brand. Singstar is just one of the many titles that we have largely due to his ability to see the potential.

 

[Nisaaru]

We know the Bungie basically had to leave Microsoft to break free of endless Halo sequels.

I've never believed that public spin by Bungie to be the real motivation. It was just the sales pitch to the public. I always assumed it was about money+corporate control. They saw how big Halo became, knew their proven skill set and how the market looked with the main competitor Infinity War making billions for Activision multi platform. It doesn't take a large leap of faith that Bungie management saw El Dorado if they made the right moves. Money and future job security for people even while leaving their creative prime at 40-50 than depending on the mercy of MS personal department and corporate culture....

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Money and future job security for people...

You think working for MS on their biggest, most important franchise wasn't providing suitable job security and wages? And breaking out with a new IP was the safer option, in an industry renowned for its difficulty of predicting success and where 70% of projects fail?

 

[Nesh]

You think working for MS on their biggest, most important franchise wasn't providing suitable job security and wages? And breaking out with a new IP was the safer option, in an industry renowned for its difficulty of predicting success and where 70% of projects fail?

What could be the reason then?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

They wanted to make something other than Halo and MS wouldn't let them.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Let's see, as part of Microsoft. Microsoft would take part of the profits and Bungie employees get paid.

As part of Activision. Activision takes part of the profits and Microsoft/Sony take part of the profits (~30%) and Bungie employees get paid. You can sell on more consoles, but more people are taking their piece of the profit pie.

And also consider that Microsoft is one of the best companies with regards to employee pay and benefits. Especially if the employees continue to execute well on products that continue to sell well.

For Bungie it absolutely was about wanting to create something other than Halo. So, on the one hand Microsoft wanted to keep the face of the Xbox franchise going. On the other hand Bungie wanted to make something else. And you can't blame Microsoft for that. Imagine for a moment that Polyphony Digital said to Sony, we don't want to make another Gran Turismo game for the next 10 years. I have a feeling Sony would tell them to shut up and make another Gran Turismo, considering it is their most profitable IP and very much the face of the PS4 like Halo is for the Xbox. Luckily for Sony, Polyphony Digital aren't terribly interested in making games other than Gran Turismo (only 2 in their entire history).

As for Phil Harrison, he got to form his own development studio within Microsoft and run it how he saw fit. Nothing came of it, so it's not shocking that he didn't get promoted.

I think that's a great case of someone overstepping their bounds. He may be great at evaluating projects other development studios are doing and greenlighting them. But he appears to be very bad at creating his own development studio and coming up with his own creative project.

That's a common failing you see all the time. Where someone is very good at evaluating talent and seeing the potential in something that is already being created, but very bad at creating something themselves or coming up with new ideas for a new product from the ground up.

IMO, this is a case where for Phil Harrison's own good he should have been left with the role of evaluating existing/upcoming projects (which he's very good at) and not given the ability to head up basically his own development studio.

It's sort of like how a good movie producer has an eye for good projects to back, but are often very bad at creating their own movies.

Regards,
SB

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

For Bungie it absolutely was about wanting to create something other than Halo.

Sorry, I know that is the story that is being told, but I don't believe it. Really? Bungie wanted their freedom because they didn't want to just keep making Haloz, and then they release their first non-MS game and it's.. Haloz.

It's not like they made a platformer or an RPG, they just took Haloz and threw a bit of Mass Effect into it. This was their great "artistic" jump that they made after getting out from underneath the weight and shackles of Haloz?

Really?

So I don't believe that for a second. They thought they could make more money as an independent selling across multiple platforms rather than selling just to Xbox and getting whatever MS paid them for that exclusivity. This crap about them wanting to make other games, etc.. is garbage.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

http://www.develop-online.net/analysis/single-player/0116057

Harold Ryan, Studio Head:

...So from that point of view we don’t have a shortage of people happy to make Halo games, but obviously there are guys that have shipped Halo games for ten years, and they are definitely ready to work on new IPs or create new things. We’re actively engaged with the senior staff here on a couple of new IPs right now,...
...

But surely being an independent means that it’s even riskier to try new IP?

Yeah, you have to be responsible for how you plan and model your funding. If you have one success and two failures, you’re dragging pennies out of the bank.
...
Absolutely. Part of what we get out of this, and what Microsoft gets out of this, is that it doesn’t let us get fat and lazy on Halo. Before, we could have just been the internal team in Microsoft that worked on Halo 3 and then said ‘Yeah, we’re working on Halo 4 and it’s out in a couple of years’. Just sat back, not worried on the progress made. But now it’s our company, it’s our dime, so keeping that loop of development on ideas and concepts, keeping the group that does that small, and not taking three months off because we’ve just shipped a game – that’s the creative energy now.

Does Harold Ryan count as rumour?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

There's always going to be crackpot conspiracy theories where everyone is obviously lying. But this is the most absurd one I've ever seen.

Consider that Halo is the face of Xbox. Microsoft is sitting on billions of USD. If it was only about money, Microsoft would have no problems giving them more more money. It was always about creative freedom. Destiny is an FPS. That's about all it shares with Halo. They stated numerous times how they did not want to be tied to the Halo universe, mythology, history, etc. multiple times. They wanted to create something different. There are incredibly many ways where Destiny diverges from Halo. Not only in gameplay (some massive differences) but it the Lore and history.

Imagine for a second, loot grinding in a Halo game. Unacceptable. You'd risk antagonizing your fan base to try something that radically different. Same goes for a hub based experience. Gameplay focused around small parties rather than a tighter single player focus. Multiplayer that isn't tied to and judged by the history of past games. Look at the backlash when the pistol was modified between Halo and Halo 2. And that was a small change. The list goes on an on, about how radically different Destiny is from Halo, when you get past the superficial similarities.

Just like Marathon was a FPS that they created. Which lent some ideas to Halo. Which lent some ideas to Destiny. But each FPS is distinctly different in gameplay, lore, story, mythology, etc.

Hell, before they left Microsoft, they were probably toying with the idea of creating a tactical RTS (like Myth) or a third person action game (like Oni) or any other thing the heads of the studio were interested in. The fact that they ended up making an FPS with RPG-lite elements doesn't mean diddly squat. Other than it wasn't Halo. And was a gaming platform where they could try out some ideas that could not be tried in a Halo game.

Regards,
SB

 

[Nesh]

They wanted to make something other than Halo and MS wouldn't let them.

So they prefered the riskier option so they would be able to make new IPs?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

So they prefered the riskier option so they would be able to make new IPs?

Sure, just like Irrational Games, despite making multiple successful games in the Bioshock universe was closed down by the head of the studio (Ken Levine) because he just didn't want to make AAA games anymore. It wasn't closed down due to lack of money, funding, or interest by the publisher in maintaining the Bioshock franchise. Nor was it due to bad blood between the publisher and Ken Levine/Irrational Games (Ken Levine's new studio is being published by Take-Two as well). Once you have millions of USD, sometimes you just want to do something else not tied to what you've been doing.

Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't.

Heck sometimes developers leave because the development studio decided to do something different. For example, much of the Diablo 1 team wanted to keep making Diablo type of games, so left Blizzard to form a new company. You know, leaving behind guaranteed big time money, to take a risk on making your own thing.

One of the co-founders of EQ at the height of its success (it was the MMO that was printing its own money before WoW became the gold standard of an MMO printing its own money) left the company to form his own development studio to make an MMO with a different vision. Game development studios are littered with stories like these.

Regards,
SB

 

[Nisaaru]

You think working for MS on their biggest, most important franchise wasn't providing suitable job security and wages? And breaking out with a new IP was the safer option, in an industry renowned for its difficulty of predicting success and where 70% of projects fail?

For the key guys probably but do you really think people reaching 50 and beyond their prime in the gaming industry will have job security until retirement? There isn't a management position for everybody.

If you're a famous AAA studio with excellent production experience and a large fan base I doubt they had a hard time getting a good deal.

 

[Nisaaru]

There's always going to be crackpot conspiracy theories where everyone is obviously lying. But this is the most absurd one I've ever seen.

Consider that Halo is the face of Xbox. Microsoft is sitting on billions of USD. If it was only about money, Microsoft would have no problems giving them more more money. It was always about creative freedom. Destiny is an FPS. That's about all it shares with Halo. They stated numerous times how they did not want to be tied to the Halo universe, mythology, history, etc. multiple times. They wanted to create something different. There are incredibly many ways where Destiny diverges from Halo. Not only in gameplay (some massive differences) but it the Lore and history.

Here's the thing. We don't know what kind of contract/relation they had with MS and how much money actually went their way and reached the pockets of the key people. I doubt they nor MS had considered multi billion USD profits for a FPS franchise back in 1999/2000. They even had to produce 2 further games for MS after the split decision was made. Why if they were really "independent" inside MS?

Even if they were truly interested into designing new games why should MS seriously block it? Look how fast they pulled an extra studio out of their hat to produce further Halos. They could have done the same and split teams which they did in the end anyway when people moved to 343. You don't just piss of your prime studio guys if it was really about creativity.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Even if they were truly interested into designing new games why should MS seriously block it? Look how fast they pulled an extra studio out of their hat to produce further Halos. They could have done the same and split teams which they did in the end anyway when people moved to 343. You don't just piss of your prime studio guys if it was really about creativity.

Microsoft didn't form the new studio very quickly. Bungie went independent back in 2007 after the release of Halo 3. As part of going independent, they were under contract for 2 more games in the Halo universe. They then made Halo: ODST and Halo: Reach.

Microsoft started to recruit for 343 Industries after giving Bungie their independence in 2007. The studio was officially established in 2009. 2 years to form the team. With the Halo assets from Bungie it took them another 3 years to release Halo 4.

Had there been ANY animosity between the two companies Microsoft would not have allowed Bungie to leave Microsoft. And Bungie wouldn't have agreed to make another 2 Halo projects.

Also, Microsoft wouldn't have had the right of first refusal for any subsequent Bungie title. Basically the relationship between the two companies was so good at the time that Bungie would have preferred to make the title for Microsoft, but Activision offered them more money than Microsoft was willing to match for a new IP.

And, on top of all that. Through the entire history of the Bungie being with Microsoft AND while they were independent, not a single bad thing has been said about Microsoft from anyone of importance at Bungie. If there had been any bad feelings at all, it would have leaked by now. But, no, anytime they've been asked...ever...they've only had glowing things to say about their relationship with Microsoft and how they were treated.

So, yeah. It's hard to put any stock into anything saying that Bungie were unhappy with Microsoft or the money they were making. It was purely about creative freedom and independence.

And Microsoft, unlike almost any other publisher on the planet allowed them to go independent. A truly unique situation. If it was any other publisher, the creative talent would have been forced to leave while the parent company kept the development studio.

Regards,
SB

 

[Nisaaru]

And how does the exclusive PS4 Destiny deal fit into your picture? You don't just throw your past fan base under the bus for a few millions Sony might have paid for 1year content exclusivity. XB1 owners paid the same price but got far less and the whole situation had a certain vibe which didn't match with "We are all still good old friends. It's just business". The content exclusivity deal surely wasn't needed to raise awareness in the PS community for the game.

I consider the 2 games deal (Halo4+ODST) with MS as their price to get free and keep the company name+technology. MS probably had to decide between loosing the people, keep the studio label and a long delay until the next Halo game or 2 more games and potential partnership in the future. We've seen how the first option "worked" with Rare in the past and we've seen where the partnership went.