SCEWW President Phil Harrison Resigns, Hirai Fills In

Sony Computer Entertainment today announced the formal resignation of SCE Worldwide Studios president Phil Harrison.

SCEI president and group CEO Kazuo Hirai will take over Harrison's duties in addition to his own.

Harrison joined Sony in 1992, serving in a variety of executive roles during the company's early PlayStation period. Appointed to the newly-christened position of Worldwide Studios president in 2005, Harrison was responsible for developing a global strategy for Sony's game division, fulfilling a wide range of duties.

Harrison recently criticized Sony Japan for its lack of foresight in regards to the social gaming phenomenon.

"It's a very interesting and frustrating thing for me to experience because I have been banging the drum about social gaming for a long time, with SingStar, EyeToy and Buzz," said Harrison to GamesIndustry.biz last week.

"And our Japanese colleagues said that there is no such thing as social gaming in Japan--people do not play games on the same sofa together in each other's homes. It will never happen. And then out comes the Wii."