Google Hiring Former Xbox And PlayStation Exec Could Hint At Bigger Video Game Ambitions

Google can’t really be accused of having a huge stake in video games as far as production and publishing is concerned. The closest that the search engine company ever came to making video games is YouTube Let’s Plays. This might soon change with the tech giant hiring a former executive of both Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation divisions.

Phil Harrison has been a veteran in the gaming industry for several decades, starting his career as a designer before filling several top roles in both Sony and Microsoft, 9to5Google reports. In a recent announcement, Harrison revealed that he will be working at Google, with his role being that of a Vice President and GM.

At this point, however, it’s unclear which division he will actually be the Vice President of. The same goes for the projects that he will be leading. Considering his history and resume, though, the safest assumption to make is that it will have at least have something to do with gaming.

Google also remains tight-lipped about the matter and the only thing that the company would confirm is that they are hiring Harrison and that he will be reporting to its senior VP of hardware, Rick Osterloh. This narrows speculation down a bit, but not by much. As Business Insider notes, Osterloh’s division overseas development of several products.

According to some experts, Harrison is most likely going to be involved with developing augment reality (AR). The video game veteran is experienced in actually streamlining operations and getting different divisions to work together. Google could be hoping that Harrison can get its AR and mobile departments to produce something revolutionary.

Google’s hardware ambitions have been wrapped in rumors of horrible cooperation among its various factions. This is often attributed to the lackluster development around the Daydream technology.