Developer’s GDC billboard pokes at despised former Google Stadia exec

Satirical San Francisco billboard asks: "Has a Harrison fired you lately?"

Kyle Orland – Mar 18, 2025 5:40 pm | 66

The subject of this billboard is totally, completely legally distinct from former Google Stadia executive Phil Harrison. Credit: VGC

It has been nearly two years now since game industry veteran Phil Harrison left Google following the implosion of the company's Stadia cloud gaming service. But the passage of time hasn't stopped one company from taking advantage of this week's Game Developers Conference to poke fun at the erstwhile gaming executive for his alleged mistreatment of developers.

VGC spotted a conspicuous billboard in San Francisco's Union Square Monday featuring the overinflated, completely bald head of Gunther Harrison, the fictional Alta Interglobal CEO who was recently revealed as the blatantly satirical antagonist in the upcoming game Revenge of the Savage Planet. A large message atop the billboard asks passersby—including the tens of thousands in town for GDC—"Has a Harrison fired you lately? You might be eligible for emotional support."

Google's Phil Harrison talks about the Google Stadia controller at GDC 2019. Credit: Google

While Gunther Harrison probably hasn't fired any GDC attendees, the famously bald Phil Harrison was responsible for the firing of plenty of developers when he shut down Google's short-lived Stadia Games & Entertainment (SG&E) publishing imprint in early 2021. That shutdown surprised a lot of newly jobless game developers, perhaps none more so than those at Montreal-based Typhoon Games, which Google had acquired in late 2019 to make what Google's Jade Raymond said at the time would be "platform-defining exclusive content" for Stadia.

Yet on the very same day that Journey to the Savage Planet launched as a Stadia exclusive, the developers at Typhoon found themselves jobless, alongside the rest of SG&E. By the end of 2022, Google would shut down Stadia entirely, blindsiding even more game developers.

Don’t forgive, don’t forget

After being let go by Google, Typhoon Games would reform as Raccoon Logic (thanks in large part to investment from Chinese publishing giant Tencent) and reacquire the rights to the Savage Planet franchise. And now that the next game in that series is set to launch in May, it seems the developers still haven't fully gotten over how they were treated during Google's brief foray into game publishing.

“Google wanted games that only worked in the cloud—which don’t exist,” Raccoon Logic co-founder & creative director Alex Hutchinson told VGC in an August interview. "They were asking us to deliver the kind of games built by 400 to 600 people, huge Marvel license games and Star Wars tie-ins. They said if you make the game and it’s great with 25 people, then we’ll let you hire 500 artists, which is not how it works. No one was talking the same language."

gunther harrison , your days are numbered!! pic.twitter.com/j3e4kqz9In

— Revenge of the Savage Planet (@SavagePlanetHub) November 27, 2024

Raccoon Logic's new San Francisco billboard includes a QR code that directs visitors to a promotional page for Revenge of the Savage Planet, featuring the pithy sympathy message that "We got fired by him as well!" The site promises a donation to the Canadian Mental Health Association for each person who scans the billboard; as of this writing, those donations sit below $2,500.

Thanks for sticking it to Gunther Harrison! Credit: Revenge of the Savage Planet

Harrison served as the very public face of Stadia shortly after his hiring in 2018 when the service was still being teased as "Project Stream." He was a main presenter on a GDC stage almost exactly six years ago when Google revealed the Stadia name and promised that the streaming service would be "the future of games." By 2020, though, Harrison had stopped tweeting or appearing in promotional videos, finally leaving the company in 2023.

Before the ill-fated Stadia, Harrison helped lead Sony's gaming efforts during the troubled launch of the PlayStation 3, at one point going so far as to brag that "nobody will ever use 100 percent of [the PS3's] capability." He then worked in Microsoft's gaming division during the disastrous rollout of the Xbox One and its confused used game policies.

Since leaving Google, Harrison has yet to announce a new role on his LinkedIn page.

Don’t forgive, don’t forget

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