Ian Hetherington, the man who brought us Wipeout, has died
Colleagues mourn the loss of the gaming icon on Twitter.
Ian Hetherington, founder of development studio Psygnosis, passed away.
Hetherington played a major role within the UK video game development scene from the mid ’80s to the early 2000s. His work with Psygnosis helped create classic games like Wipeout and Lemmings. In a recent Tweet, Wipeout composer Tim Wright mourned the loss, citing Hetherington as the man who helped launch his career.
A little bit of Heatherington’s background
Hetherington began his storied career in the gaming industry as the Financial Director of Liverpool-based Imagine Software. Following the company’s closure, he co-founded the studio Psygnosis along with Jonathon Ellis and David Lawson. Throughout the late ’80s and early ’90s, Psygnosis developed various games for the Amiga and Atari ST.
Sony acquired Psygnosis in 1993 to prepare for the 1995 western launch of the PlayStation. The UK development studio played a key role in game development for the western PlayStation market. In addition to Wipeout, notable hits include Colony Wars, Overboard! and G-Police. Psygnosis also helped develop the original devkits for Sony’s console.
Psygnosis veteran Nick Burcombe also took to Twitter to address Hetherington’s passing. He also cites Hetherington’s leadership as essential to the success of Psygnosis and the games they developed.
After Hetherington left Psygnosis in 1998, he also formed the companies Realtime Worlds and Evolution Studios. Meanwhile, in 1999, Sony merged its studios into Sony Computer Entertainment. As a result, Psygnosis became SCE Studio Liverpool. The studio went on to create major hits for the PS2 and PS3 before it closed in 2012.
As we remember Hetherington and his work, what are some of your favorite Psygnosis games? Let us know below.
