Dave Ranyard leaving Sony London Studio

One of the leading minds behind Sony London Studio’s PlayStationVR titles is leaving the company.

Dave Ranyard has worked at the developer for 17 years, overseeing the tech demos for Sony’s virtual reality headset such as Streetluge and The London Heist. He has also worked on The Getaway, plus various Singstar, Eyetoy and Wonderbook titles.

He steps down from his role as studio head in order to pursue other opportunities in virtual reality and independent development.

"2016 is going to be the year of VR so it’s the perfect time for me to take this step into independent development,” he said in a statement. “The emergence of a new medium like VR doesn’t come along very often and I really want to be a part of this new world.

“It was a tough decision to leave Sony as I have really enjoyed my time there, working on some amazing games and making some lifelong friends. I’m also a huge PlayStation fanboy at heart so am looking forward to working on Sony’s VR platform in addition to others that will be available.”