Phil Harrison: We're Moving Away from Huge Budget Single-Player Games

Atari President Phil Harrison has made clear his intentions to push the company toward social games.

Three months after departing from Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Harrison said Atari will move away from big-budget single-player ventures down the line.

Pointing out that a vast majority of people never finish single-player games, he said it was "economic insanity" to stick with conventional titles.

"I don't see that we're going to be making huge-budget, single-player games in the future. Now, that doesn't mean that we won't have ambition to do really incredible games that have high quality, high execution, and high innovation, but they won't be one-player, narrative-driven, start-middle-end games," said Harrison.

Atari is currently throwing much of its weight behind Alone in the Dark, which largely fits the very mold Harrison said the company will avoid in future.

He said the online community model offered good business opportunities.

"Atari is part of an industry in some transition from pure[ly] packaged media to an online business model and social communication and community model. If we are part of that transition, perhaps we are going to take a slightly aggressive, leading-edge role in that transition," said Harrison.

Source: Gamasutra.com