The former president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Phil Harrison, has turned up - as rumours suggested he would - as the new president of Infogrames to grow the Atari brand into a leading online game company.

According to the company Phil Harrison will oversee the studio's and content development for the group as well as be in charge of boosting the Group's publishing activities, notably through reinforcing its franchise portfolio of products, developing its new packaged and online games, and strengthening its internal and external studio capability through attracting world-class design and development talent to the organisation.

Regarding his appointment, Phil stated, "As the game business moves rapidly online I believe we have an outstanding opportunity to create amazing network game and community experiences for players the world over".

Phil Harrison joined Sony in 1992 and is recognised as making a "tremendous contribution" playing a strategic role in the launch of four PlayStation platforms, as well as building relationships with game developers and publishers throughout the world.

Harrison recently made gaming news headlines by criticising Sony Japan for being slow to realise the potential of social gaming as offered by the PS3-beating Nintendo Wii.