Ian Hetherington (28 June 1952 – 14 December 2021) was a British businessman who co-founded video games developer

Psygnosis Psygnosis Limited (; known as SCE Studio Liverpool or simply Studio Liverpool from 1999) was a British video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher headquartered at Wavertree Technology Park in Liverpool. Founded in 1984 by Ian Het ...

Biography

He was a co-founder of

, a company that developed

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

s. Along with Jonathan Ellis, Hetherington founded Psygnosis following the collapse of

Imagine Software Imagine Software was a British video games developer based in Liverpool which existed briefly in the early 1980s, initially producing software for the ZX Spectrum and VIC-20. The company rose quickly to prominence and was noted for its polishe ...

where Hetherington was the Financial Director. Based in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, Psygnosis's team was responsible for publishing such games as '' Shadow of the Beast'', '' Wipeout'', and ''

Lemmings A lemming is a small rodent, usually found in or near the Arctic in tundra biomes. Lemmings form the subfamily Arvicolinae (also known as Microtinae) together with voles and muskrats, which form part of the superfamily Muroidea, which also incl ...

''. Psygnosis was later acquired by

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

in 1993 to work on the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

console. The name Psygnosis eventually became defunct, and the company became known as

Studio Liverpool Psygnosis Limited (; known as SCE Studio Liverpool or simply Studio Liverpool from 1999) was a British video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher headquartered at Wavertree Technology Park in Liverpool. Founded in 1984 by Ian Het ...

. Multiple sequels to many of Psygnosis's games were released, including a PSP release of ''Wipeout'', called ''

Wipeout Pure ''Wipeout Pure'' (stylised as ''wipE′out pṳrE'') is a 2005 racing video game developed by Studio Liverpool and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation Portable. It was released as a launch title for the platform in North ...

''. Hetherington left Psygnosis in 1998. Hetherington was also Chairman of

Evolution Studios Evolution Studios Ltd. was a British video game developer based in Runcorn, Cheshire. The company was founded in 1999 by Martin Kenwright and Ian Hetherington, following the purchase of their studio Digital Image Design's publisher Ocean So ...

and

Realtime Worlds Realtime Worlds Ltd. (formerly Rage Games (Scotland) Limited and Real Time Worlds Ltd.) was a British video game developer based in Dundee. The studio was formed in February 2000 when Rage Software hired David Jones to lead its Scottish opera ...

. He counted

racing In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and be ...

s in club events as his hobby. He died on 14 December 2021, at the age of 69. Psygnosis co-founder Jonathan Ellis paid tribute on

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

References

External links

The demise of Imagine #1

The demise of Imagine #2

MobyGames' rap sheet on Hetherington

How Ian Hetherington incubated gaming success (Sony PlayStation)
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Photograph of Ian Hetherington circa. 2005
1952 births 2021 deaths British businesspeople Realtime Worlds {{UK-compu-bio-stub