For the weekend directly leading up to the E3 event, it sure was jampacked with news, wasn't it? If you've been hanging around the industry for a while now, you'd know that the usual occurrence during this time of the year (or whenever there is an event, actually), is to have some kind of drought in news. But no, not this year. Everyone's just as pumped up about the upcoming event, it didn't matter if the news that came out were more on the rumors and speculations and "leaks" side. We don't mind. We know we're in for the big stuff. Are you ready?

Last year, Phil Harrison made quite a ruckus when he severed ties with SCEI as their president, and then jumping on board Atari's team, via parent company Infogrames,  to serve as President. Today, however, we receive word that he will be stepping down from the position, and will assume instead a non-executive Director role.

Atari's Phil Harrison is sure taking the game to a different playing arena: in their recent Atari Live event in London, he revealed that they may soon be going digital download for the PSP. Though Atari didn't announce any upcoming PSP games during the event, Harrison reaffirmed his belief that physical media may soon be obsolete... which is why they may be going digital instead. And if all goes well, maybe the iPhone too.

The end of physical media is nigh! That's according to Phil Harrison, at least. See, he's "pretty confident [kids] will never buy a physical media product" in the future - that's counting CDs, DVDs, games in boxes... Man, could you imagine talking to your future kid? "Err, daddy what's a dee-vee-dee? Daddy, is it a title of an emo song?"

Tetsuya Mizuguchi (of Lumines, Rez fame) just loves our news blog so much that he's decided to name his upcoming game after our site! (Or... not.) Whatever the case, Atari's recent press conference had former Sony bigwig Phil Harrison handle the proceedings. Some of the biggest news they've announced in the event involves Tetsuya Mizuguchi's latest rhythm game and the upcoming Ghostbusters multi-platform title's release window.

This news is just about to fire up more theories regarding the much-desired PSP Phone. Sony has just been awarded patent rights for a "hand-held [sic] device with touchscreen and digital tactile pixels." While there's nothing in it to clearly indicate this is for a PSP Phone, it still feeds our imaginations something mighty, don't it? Read more after the jump.

Sony Computer Entertainment has sent word that they've selected Shuhei Yoshida as their new World Wide Studios president. Yoshida will be replacement Phil Harrison, who left the company last February. Details regarding this announcement are in the full article.

Analysts are known for scrutinizing trends and then making predictions based on those trends. In this case, David Cole of DFC Intelligence has his own take on the Xbox 360's performance in Europe. Interestingly, it includes a predicted switching of loyalties as well. Analyze the details in the full article after the jump.

Sometimes, when people start over, they change their names. In the case of Infogrames, David Gardner and Phil Harrison are thinking of dropping the company name altogether in the interest of starting anew. More on this proposed new beginning after the jump.

If you're ready for another serving of video game rumors, then inside informer Surfer Girl is here to deliver. The latest batch of tidbits take a look into the similarities of EA's upcoming The Godfather 2 title with GTA 4, updates on the progress of a couple of Xbox 360 ports, and some new details regarding L.A. Noire. You can find out more about these juicy rumors in our full article.