Harrison issues chilling warning to publishers

The video games industry of tomorrow is likely to be bossed by a very different leading pack as traditional publishers refuse to accept the changing face of the market.

That’s the warning issued by former Sony Worldwide Studios boss and current general partner at London Venture Partners Phil Harrison.

"It’s probably the most important question the industry is wrestling with right now," he told IndustryGamers at GDC earlier in the month.

"If this conference was called ‘Game Publishers Conference’ I think everyone would be in the bar crying into their beer and being just miserable. Without naming names, if I was a chief executive at one of the major traditional publishers, I’d be really challenging my leadership team as to how to change the company.

"But I don’t know of a company that has successfully reinvented itself from being packaged goods, product centric to being network service centric. I don’t know of an example, and if you can find one, I’d love to know about it. I don’t know of a company that’s successfully changed its culture – in any industry, not just in the computer gaming business.

"The chances are that the leaders of social and mobile are not going to be from traditional packaged goods game companies."