Phil is British-born but based in the US. When Sony launched the PlayStation it was his job to ensure that as many publishers as possible developed games for the new machine. At the height of the console's global success, he's reaping the rewards of his efforts....
Neil West

FG: Played any good games lately?
PH: Gran Turismo still has me hooked, but most recently I've been playing the new Tetris game on PlayStation. It's got a brilliant two-player challenge mode that has us all hooked here in the office (just finished a 70-game session with a colleague).

FG: What do you think of Lara Croft?
PH: She's not real, you know. However, I admire her for her brains and her independent thinking. It's honestly got nothing to do with her more prominent assets.

FG: What name or initials do you enter on high-score tables?
PH: Assuming I ever get that privilege, PHIL or PRH.

FG: What games systems do you have at home?
PH: Er, PlayStation - I wasn't aware that there were other systems anymore. Have I missed something here? Oh, hang on there's my old Commodore 64 in a box somewhere.

FG: If you could keep just one, which would it be?
PH: My desert island game system would have to be the PlayStation. Although having said that, I am in the position of having every game that's ever come out for it, so I'm a little biased.

FG: What's your favourite bit in Super Mario 64?
PH: Seeing the cannon, thinking that it would be fun to fire yourself out of it and then finding out that you actually can. Great wish fulfilment and what games should be all about.

FG: Who'd win in a fight, Sonic or Mario?
PH: Sonic would run away faster but Mario has a big spanner (or so I hear). Both would loose to any one of the PlayStation gang - Lara, Solid Snake, Crash and even Spyro could wipe the floor with them.

FG: Were games better in the "good old days"?
PH: No, but the ideas were fresh. It was a frontier world, uninhibited by focus groups, demographics, marketing strategies and the like. Not better, just more exciting to see a genuinely new idea every month, rather than once a year.