Phil Harrison "pissed off" by Sony Japan

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Says he saw social gaming coming a mile off but Sony's Japanese suits weren't interested

During whatNext Generationcalls the best session of GDC, some of the industry's biggest cone heads came together to talk about games and the future.

Crowd-pulling names like Phil Harrison (Sony), Peter Molyneux (Lionhead) and David Perry (Acclaim) piled into a posh hotel room, along with a handful of press. One of the more interesting nuggets to come from the meet involved Phil Harrison talking about his constant battle to get social gaming on the map at Sony Japan.

"It's frustrating for me to experience, because I've been saying for years that playing games together is the future, but the guys in Japan [Sony] said that people just didn't play that way," he said.

Harrison's been leading the family-friendly gaming charge for years now with the likes of SingStar and Buzz. But it sounds like Sony Japan thought he was talking rubbish, until the Wii came out and Nintendo won the war in record time.

"The Wii ads show the perspective from the television - of people on the sofa having fun together - which is very clever, so how pissed off am I?" We're sure it was said with a smile though. After all, they do pay his massive salary.

Read more excerpts from the round table interview here.

Courtesy of CVG.

Feb 22, 2008