Phil Harrison joins Gaikai advisory board

Backing up his talk, Phil Harrison has joined the advisory board of cloud-gaming service Gaikai. In his keynote address before the Italian Videogame Developers Conference last December, Harrison precipitated "the browser wars of the 21st century" -- a battle to distribute console-quality, triple-A games on any browser-equipped device.

"Somebody is going to win," he said at the time. "Somebody is going to deliver console-level 3D graphics, video and audio into a web browser." It would appear that Harrison has placed his chips -- or at least some of them -- on Gaikai. The one-time president of Sony Computer Entertainment (oh, and Atari, too -- don't forget), Harrison will maintain his role as rich guy investor at London Venture Partners, which he co-founded last year with some other fat cats.

Joining the rich guy on the Gaikai advisory board is rich gal Robin Kaminsky, the former executive VP of Activision, who led both studio and marketing activities. Kaminsky's marketing experience in particular is coveted by Gaikai CEO David Perry. "The first use of Gaikai's open cloud is to disrupt how video game advertising works," he said in today's advisory board announcement.

Gaikai's current mission differs from the service provided by chief competitor OnLive (oh, and Otoy, too -- don't forget) in that it seeks to provide browser-based demos that developers and publishers can feature on their websites to drive full-game sales. Gaikai is currently in a closed beta testing phase.

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Phil Harrison and Robin Kaminsky Join Gaikai's Advisory Board

LOS ANGELES, USA. May 17th, 2011. Gaikai Inc., the innovative cloud-based game streaming service, today announced the appointments of industry veterans Phil Harrison and Robin Kaminsky to serve on its Advisory Board.

Harrison and Kaminsky bring their incredible industry knowledge, insights, relationships and experience to the Gaikai Advisory Board which will help the company disrupt the way games are discovered and enjoyed by players worldwide.

Phil Harrison, General Partner at London Venture Partners, is the former President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios where he spent over 15 years. Harrison is widely recognized as being instrumental in the global success of the PlayStation brand through innovative hardware and software products that helped grow the industry. He is also the former President of Atari and previously served as a member of the board of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.

"I've known Phil for most of my career and watched him help build the global PlayStation brand from scratch," said David Perry, CEO of Gaikai Inc. "As we build our open, cloud platform for all games companies to use, we believe Phil's input and perspective will be very valuable."

"Gaikai combines an excellent technology, an innovative business model with an equally impressive team of smart people," said Phil Harrison, General Partner of London Venture Partners, "I look forward to contributing to the advisory board and helping the company realize its vision of the future of digital entertainment through the cloud."

Robin Kaminsky, currently CEO of 1st Street Partners, Inc. as well as an Executive-in-Residence at Rustic Canyon Ventures, was the EVP of Publishing at Activision (leading both studio and marketing functions) where she was responsible for Activision's highly successful global games portfolio including Call of Duty and Guitar Hero. Prior to Activision, Kaminsky was a marketing executive and general manager at PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company, Revlon and Johnson & Johnson.

"The first use of Gaikai's open cloud is to disrupt how video game advertising works today. Instead of paying to move people around on the internet, our web partners can bring state-of-the-art games directly to the players on their websites. The cost of getting people to experience the latest video games will plummet. We greatly value the advice and input of Robin as we roll out this new service," said David Perry, CEO of Gaikai Inc.

"Gaikai is changing the way players interact and discover games. I am thrilled to play a role in building Gaikai and to be there to help David fulfil his vision for frictionless, streaming gaming experiences delivered to hundreds of millions of players around the world," added Robin Kaminsky.


About Phil Harrison
Phil Harrison began his career in the computer game industry in 1986 as a game designer and graphic artist. Phil joined Sony Computer Entertainment in 1992 where he was part of the senior team that built the PlayStation business globally with senior executive leadership roles in Europe, the USA and latterly as President of Worldwide Studios. Phil served on the board of Atari from 2008 to 2010. Phil is co-founder and General Partner at London Venture Partners - the online, mobile, social and cloud game-focused Venture Capital firm formed in 2010.


About Robin Kaminsky
Robin Kaminsky has spent more than 20 years building consumer and technology companies. Currently Robin is the CEO and Founder of 1st Street Partners, Inc., providing strategic consulting and advisory services to an array of consumer, entertainment and technology companies. She is also an Executive-in-Residence at Rustic Canyon Partners and an independent Director of the Board of Wild Planet Entertainment. Previously, Robin was the Executive Vice President of Publishing at Activision, responsible for both the development and commercialization of Activision's global games business, and a marketing executive and general manager at PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company, Revlon and Johnson & Johnson.


Gaikai offers the ability to play any game instantly inside the web browser with just one click, no big game download, no game install and no patching designed to dramatically increase both reach, and audience participation, while bringing down acquisition costs dramatically. By playing games remotely from Gaikai servers around the world, players simply play wherever they are browsing, removing the need to pay for today's advertising clicks as there is no need to move gamers around on the Internet. This freedom to play anywhere and everywhere opens up exciting business models as you can play on any video game retailer site, any news site, publisher sites, or even inside Facebook.

For more information, please visit: http://www.gaikai.com
Gaikai Twitter: http://twitter.com/gaikai_inc