Sony exec Phil Harrison *hearts* Wiimote, iPhone
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 1:09pm by Jack
I never in a million years thought I’d be caught dead saying this, but thank you Phil Harrison, thank you.
Why the love? Because last week at the Game Developer’s Conference the outgoing Sony video game chief said that controllers for the PS3 and the Xbox 360 were too confusing for a majority of people in the world today. “You hand somebody a game controller and it’s like you’ve handed them a live gun or a hand grenade with the pin taken out,” he said.
Then Harrison, perhaps emboldened by his recent decision to abandon ship at Sony and swim towards the sinking ship that is Atari (Infogrames), applauded the Wiimote and the Apple iPhone for their ease-of-use.
GameIndustry.biz reports that Harrison praised Nintendo’s Wiimote for being a “non-game centric device” which has democratized video game controls. He was also impressed with the iPhone for appealing to a user’s natural instincts. No, not making babies — touching things! (which, in hindsight, can also lead to making babies, but I digress…)
“I saw this first hand a few weeks ago where a two year old was playing with an iPhone and he knows how to get the pictures up of mum and dad. The two year-old then intuitively thought that all electronic devices worked like that,” said Harrison. “He’s pressing the TV to change channels. He’s right and the rest of us are wrong – that should be applied universally. Apple should be applauded for that innovation.”
So, if you remember nothing else today, remember these wise words — The Wii: building one video game democracy at a time. The iPhone: makes babies.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Phil Harrison is otherwise a complete putz, though, and Sony is going to be better off without him. He’s definitely no Reggie. He also suffers from chronic “can’t-sit-down-for-the-rest-of-his-life-because-he-got-his-ass-
handed-to-him-by-Nintendo” syndrome. He’s abandoned the defeated Empire to join a troop of lemmings. I don’t like him very much, in case no one noticed. A year ago, the Wii-mote was a “gimmick and too toyish” for Sony….NOW it is to be APPLAUDED as a great innovation? Sounds like an admission of defeat and unconditional surrender to me. Maybe someone should’ve handed him the live grenade instead of the XBox controller….
February 26th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
My guess is that IF he leaves for Atari he will be the head of his own studio and will most likley be making games for Wii because they are profitable for Atari.
Maybe we will enjoy she pleasure of seeing him at E3, on stage, with Reggie playing VC atari games.
February 26th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
“He’s pressing the TV to change channels. He’s right and the rest of us are wrong…” No! Bad Phil Harrison, bad! Fingerprints on a tv screen are never right!
February 26th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
My iPhone is the best device I’ve ever purchased. Except for maybe my MacBook and iMac.
February 26th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Oh, and on topic…still shocking to see Harrison leave Sony.
February 26th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
It’s a tough call really. Simplicity is great, but complexity defenitley has it’s place, some games just plain need alt of buttons.
February 26th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Phil obviously had a conflict of interest when commenting on other products in the past. Now that he’s at a company that makes multiplatform games, his comments still have a conflict of interest. I don’t think we’ll ever know how he truly feels, but I do think his latest comments are his true feelings. Atari doesn’t have their hands in on the iPhone so that part of his statement was unneccessary if he was only doing it to try to mend burned, blasted and bombed bridges.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I’m have to disagree with you Kale. Phil Harrison has always been passionate about expanding the gaming audience which is why he was so keen on the EyeToy, Singstar an Buzz. Because of this you can see his effect in PAL regions (UK, Australia and NZ) where these games are consistently burning up our charts and it is why the Playstation brand (and more directly) the PS2 are so popular down here.
Obviously he likes the Wii and iPhone because they follow his beliefs about usability. I think (might be true actually as I have heard something on this) that his falling out with Sony is because Japan isn’t interested in these group orientated games. So he was obviously frustrated with this and left. I feel that he is very justified for leaving and in a way it is quite sad. Best of luck to him.