Martin Kenwright is the founder of British-based virtual and augmented reality innovation company vTime Limited, digital media, entertainment and technology company

Starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 188 ...

, and video game development studios Digital Image Design (DID) and

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 Soft ...

. He created seminal computer games such as

F29 Retaliator ''F29 Retaliator'' is a combat flight simulator video game developed by Digital Image Design and published by Ocean Software in 1989 Amiga and Atari ST, 1991 for the PC, and for the FM Towns and NEC PC-9801 in 1992-1993. Its working title was j ...

and

EF2000 The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leona ...

. He is also responsible for the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. There are separate championships ...

franchise and

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

launch title,

MotorStorm ''MotorStorm'' is a racing video game series developed by Evolution Studios, BigBig Studios, Virtuos and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The titles were off-road racing games featuring different types of vehicles with their own stre ...

, along with its respective franchise.

Early life

Kenwright began life in the video game industry as a 2D graphics artist and game designer in 1987, working at

Rowan Software Rowan Software was a British software company focused on the development of computer games. The company was founded by Rod Hyde in 1987 and based in Runcorn, Cheshire. Rowan was best known as a publisher of flight simulators for the PC. The comp ...

on games such as

Falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene. Adult falcons ...

and

Tetris ''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet Union, Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute o ...

straight after leaving

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the northern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form t ...

Sixth Form College in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's coun ...

Digital Image Design

Kenwright founded

Digital Image Design Digital Image Design (DID) was a British video game developer founded by Martin Kenwright and Phillip Allsopp in 1989. It was originally based in Runcorn, Cheshire in England. The company specialized in aircraft simulator games, mostly published ...

(DID) in 1989 with Philip Allsopp in

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey ...

, Cheshire. The studio specialised in

flight simulation A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they rea ...

titles, with military using the technology from

as a training tool. His original IP,

F-22 The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is an American single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF). As the result of the USAF's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, t ...

, won the "Milia D'Or" for 'Best Game' and 'Best Flight Simulator' in 1997.

Wargasm ''WARGASM'' (or ''War Ground Air Special Missions'') is a 3D shooter / real-time strategy game developed by Digital Image Design and published by Infogrames for Microsoft Windows in 1998–1999. Gameplay The game uses the 3Dream engine to proc ...

won the "Milia D’Or" for Best Action Game in 1998. The studio broke new ground with the world's first 3D accelerated game in

and the world's first Pentium accelerated game with

The studio was acquired by

Ocean Software Ocean Software Ltd was a British software development company that became one of the biggest European video game developers and publishers of the 1980s and 1990s. The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and was based in Manchester. ...

in 1998, who became

Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA) is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive#Infogrames subsidiary, Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. (1993–present), Atari, Inc. It ...

in 1999.

Evolution Studios

Kenwright went on to form

with

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

founder,

Ian Hetherington Ian Hetherington (June 1952 – 14 December 2021) was a British businessman who co-founded computer games developer Psygnosis. Biography He was a co-founder of Psygnosis, a company that developed computer games. Along with Jonathan Ellis, Hether ...

as chairman. The fledgling company was immediately enlisted as

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), formerly known as Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company wholly owned by multinational conglomerate Sony. The SIE Group is made up of two legal co ...

's first European external development team. Evolution were subsequently handed the

video game licence, the first official

FIA FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used. Fia or FIA may also refer to: People * Fia Backs ...

licensed

game in the series for the PlayStation 2 using official drivers, cars and tracks from the 2001 season. The franchise earned two BAFTA nominations for

WRC 2 Extreme ''World Rally Championship'' is a rally racing video game series. To date, three series of video games with the official license have been released. History The first series were published by Sony Computer Entertainment who owned the WRC lic ...

in 2003 and one BAFTA nomination in 2004 for WRC 4. The success of the

WRC WRC may refer to: Broadcasting stations * WRC-TV, a television station (virtual channel 4, digital channel 34) licensed to Washington, D.C., United States * Several radio stations in the Washington, D.C. area: ** WTEM, a radio station (980 AM) l ...

franchise gave Kenwright the freedom to work on original IP in the form of

, a

PS3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

exclusive

launch title This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players. 0–9 A ...

. The title was a global number one and earned two British Academy of Arts (BAFTA) nominations. The

franchise spawned four more titles, including the BAFTA nominated MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. 5th British Academy Video Games Awards Both

Evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

and

Bigbig Studios Bigbig Studios was a British video game developer based in Leamington Spa, England. It was founded in 2001 by a core team of four former Codemasters employees. The company was set up with the help of parent company Evolution Studios. Bigbig Stu ...

were acquired by

in September 2007. Kenwright left the company, embarking on a five-year enforced sabbatical.

BigBigStudios

Kenwright was also a major shareholder in

's satellite studio,

BigBig Studios Bigbig Studios was a British video game developer based in Leamington Spa, England. It was founded in 2001 by a core team of four former Codemasters employees. The company was set up with the help of parent company Evolution Studios. Bigbig Stu ...

, based in Warwickshire. BigBig developed titles such as the critically acclaimed Pursuit Force series and Motorstorm: Arctic Edge.

Starship Group

Kenwright returned to the industry in 2013, announcing new digital entertainment studio

in March 2014. Developing original content across the VR, games, entertainment and lifestyle sectors, Kenwright announced details of the studio's first products, CyberCook and Playworld in May 2014. With Kenwright as CEO, Starship unveiled Playworld Superheroes in January 2015 and released VR demo CyberCook Taster on the

Gear VR The Samsung Gear VR is a virtual reality headset developed by Samsung Electronics, in collaboration with Oculus VR, and manufactured by Samsung. The headset was released on November 27, 2015. When in use, a compatible Samsung Galaxy device a ...

in February, 2015.

vTime Limited

Kenwright announced new product vTime in August 2015, before launching the virtual reality social network on Samsung Gear VR on 22 December 2015. vTime Limited was established as a standalone venture in April 2016 with Kenwright as CEO, having been housed previously under the umbrella of parent company Starship Group. In April 2018, Kenwright announced that vTime Limited had raised $7.6 million (£5.4 million) in a series A funding round and announced plans for the studio to release a social augmented reality experience later in 2018.

Personal life

Kenwright appeared in

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

Tech Track 100 The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 is an annual league table published in association with The Sunday Times newspaper in the UK. It ranks Britain’s 100 private technology (TMT) companies with the fastest-growing sales over their last three years. ...

in 2005 and 2006, and in

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa dist ...

's Next Generation Hot 100 Developers in 2007.The Hot 100 Game Developers of 2007 , Edge

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kenwright, Martin Living people British video game designers Businesspeople from Liverpool People from Cheshire Year of birth missing (living people)