As we know, Phil Harrison, the former head of Sony’s worldwide studios, left Sony and is now president of Infogrames.

The big question is why? That’s a big drop from heading the worldwide studios of Sony to running a small shop like Infogrames. I don’t know, but here are a few theories:

• He’s Trading Scope for Control: At Sony, Mr. Harrison clearly had influence over a vast range of studios, but how much influence did he have? Was there a lot of red tape and conflicting politics getting in his way? Maybe Infogrames has some investment capital ready, is planning a big expansion effort, and was able to offer Mr. Harrison more control over molding the software teams and vision that he wanted to see happen?
• Other: Were others at Sony unhappy with him? Did he greenlight too many bad projects? Personal issues? Who knows?

What impact will this have? I don’t think anyone outside Sony Management knows. Who knows what his specific contributions were? Regardless, many of my favorite titles are from Sony studios and I hope to see that type of innovation continue.

Does anyone think we will see big things from Infogrames in the next few years?