For the weekend directly leading up to the E3 event, it sure was jampacked with news, wasn't it? If you've been hanging around the industry for a while now, you'd know that the usual occurrence during this time of the year (or whenever there is an event, actually), is to have some kind of drought in news. But no, not this year. Everyone's just as pumped up about the upcoming event, it didn't matter if the news that came out were more on the rumors and speculations and "leaks" side. We don't mind. We know we're in for the big stuff. Are you ready?

Last year, Phil Harrison made quite a ruckus when he severed ties with SCEI as their president, and then jumping on board Atari's team, via parent company Infogrames,  to serve as President. Today, however, we receive word that he will be stepping down from the position, and will assume instead a non-executive Director role.

Atari President Phil Harrison wants to prove Activision wrong for dropping Ghostbusters like a hot potato when it merged with Blizzard, saying he wants to turn the video game into a US$ 100 million franchise. So much for Atari's goal to be "just an online company," and I couldn't be happier for them. Go Harrison!

The end of physical media is nigh! That's according to Phil Harrison, at least. See, he's "pretty confident [kids] will never buy a physical media product" in the future - that's counting CDs, DVDs, games in boxes... Man, could you imagine talking to your future kid? "Err, daddy what's a dee-vee-dee? Daddy, is it a title of an emo song?"

Tetsuya Mizuguchi (of Lumines, Rez fame) just loves our news blog so much that he's decided to name his upcoming game after our site! (Or... not.) Whatever the case, Atari's recent press conference had former Sony bigwig Phil Harrison handle the proceedings. Some of the biggest news they've announced in the event involves Tetsuya Mizuguchi's latest rhythm game and the upcoming Ghostbusters multi-platform title's release window.

Phil Harrison, Infogrames' new top boss, was never secretive over his plans to cater games to the new broader market. Alone in the Dark (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox 360) will probably be the last major mainstream title queued up in Atari's arsenal if this was true. Thankfully it's not - well not in entirety. Atari will still be catering to hardcore, but not in the same respects as before. Go to the full story for more.

Analysts are known for scrutinizing trends and then making predictions based on those trends. In this case, David Cole of DFC Intelligence has his own take on the Xbox 360's performance in Europe. Interestingly, it includes a predicted switching of loyalties as well. Analyze the details in the full article after the jump.

Sometimes, when people start over, they change their names. In the case of Infogrames, David Gardner and Phil Harrison are thinking of dropping the company name altogether in the interest of starting anew. More on this proposed new beginning after the jump.

It looks as if Phil Harrison, now president of Infogrames, is kick-starting his plans for his new colleagues and company. Word is that Infogrames-subsidiary Atari has just received a proposal to be bought out at a reasonable price, and a special review team has been assembled to review the advantages of the agreement. More at the full story.

Have you always been asking yourself, where did Phil Harrison go? Well, he joined Infogrames. The ex-Sony Computer Entertainment president now plays a significant role in Atari's slow comeback - though that would be an understatement in itself. He is the president of Atari-parent Infogrames, after all. More at the full story.