Sony Exec to Replace Peter Molyneux As Microsoft Game Studios Head

By Matt Mann / March 13, 2012

A couple days ago Microsoft lost one of the biggest names in the industry in Peter Molyneux, the man behind the Fable series and Black & White. Today Microsoft announced that former Sony Executive Phil Harrison would be replacing him as head of Microsoft Game Studios. Harrison is credited with being one of the best talent finders in the industry, with one of his biggest finds being Media Molecule (the developers of Little Big Planet).

Harrison left Sony in 2008 and has actually been out of the industry for the past four years working at an investment firm London Venture Partners. Harrison stated:

"I am excited to be joining the senior team at Microsoft at a pivotal time for our industry... I am really impressed with the company's long-term vision for growing the market for interactive entertainment globally and also with the incredible wealth of talent, technology and resources the company has available to succeed."

Microsoft Studios' Corporate Vice President Phil Spencer said:

"Phil is one of video gaming's true visionaries, and his experience overseeing global studios and deep industry relationships make him the ideal person to lead our European efforts."

Phil Harrison will hopefully be a breath of fresh air for the Microsoft Game Studios because Microsoft is in dire need of some new video game development talent. While Sony's list of exclusive games keeps growing Microsoft's list is continuing to shrink; Microsoft really needs to find some new talented game studios to create new exclusive content and games for them, especially with the expectation they will have a new console on the market by next year.