Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President and CEO, Phil Harrison, has announced that he will be resigning from the company as of the end of February.

Kazuo Hirai, Preident and Group CEO of SCEI, will step in immediately to assume all of Harrison's duties in addition to his own.

Phil Harrison joined Sony in 1992 and has been a veteran of the company for the last 15 years, helping to launch four PlayStation brands.

“As one of the founding members of SCE, Phil played a key role in the development and growth of the PlayStation business and our industry,” said Kazuo Hirai in a public statement. “It is sad to see him departing from SCE, but I wish to express my gratitude for his many invaluable contributions and also wish Phil the very best of luck in his future endeavors.”

Phil Harrison also commented in the public statement, thanking everyone at Sony for their support and hard work over the past 15 years.

The reason for his resignation has not been made clear however and the official press release gives few clues about the resignation. Phil Harrison himself was a popular target to many in the early, shaky months of the PlayStation 3's release and it's possible that this may have pushed Harrison to look for pastures new now that the console is on steadier ground.

Have a question or a comment about the resignation? Let us hear them in the forums.

Update 11:06 GMT:
It looks as if Phil is now heading to Atari at the end of February. According to GI.biz (Thanks, DougEdey!), Harrison is joining up with David Gardner (formerly of EA) to try and restore Atari to greatness.

Speaking about the move, Harrison said:

"I have a personal challenge to create a world-class company that is European in flavor but reaches global markets. This will take some time of course, but here we have fantastic gaming DNA formed at the birth of the industry, access to creative talent and a company with the working capital to make the necessary investments to realize this vision."