Why one of Sony’s biggest PSVR advocates went indie
Dave Ranyard used to head up one of Sony’s longest-running PlayStation developers, working on its most experimental tech, located in the heart of London. Over the course of the past decade, he’s worked on games that spearheaded PlayStation peripherals from the popular SingStar karaoke series to early augmented reality efforts with Wonderbook. Most recently he was working on PlayStation VR, serving as one of the kit’s key ambassadors in its early days, presenting the demos that would add up to the popular PlayStation VR Worlds launch compilation. Showing sharks to his mother, watching people fall through virtual desks or simply watching cynics be converted right before his eyes — you might consider him one of the headset’s biggest advocates.
But these days? He’s traded all of that in for a meditation yurt and he couldn’t be happier about it.
“Madness?” Ranyard interjects with a laugh before I’ve even finished my first question. Well, isn’t it? “I was 48 [when I left Sony],” he explains, “and I thought, if I don’t do it now, I’m not going to do it. It was a bit of personal pressure. I’d always thought “Wouldn’t it be great to have your own studio?””
He’s had his own businesses before, too. In another life, Ranyard was a musician signed to Warner Bros. and he’d even run a vintage clothes store before that.
For starters, DRI has found its feet by taking on some contract work. For example, it helped out with the brilliant Hold The World, a VR experience which puts you face-to-face with a photoscanned Sir David Attenborough as he takes you on a supernatural tour of London’s Natural History Museum.
See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2018/09/29/why-one-of-sonys-biggest-psvr-advocates-went-indie/