Meet Stuart Whyte, Co-Studio Head

30/04/2019

How did you start at London Studio?

I joined just under three years ago. It’s flown by!

What does your role entail?

I’m responsible for the VR team at London Studio, making Blood & Truth. Every day my job has new stuff going on, which can be challenging… but also fun too!

What do you find most exciting about your work here?

Working with talented people I admire and respect. Also… after 30 years in the industry, it’s exciting to work on something ‘new.’ VR is a new paradigm in gaming, (sounds corny – but true!) and due to this – it’s got a lot of exciting design challenges and potential. In the VR gaming field we’re very much ‘gen 1’ so we, as a studio, get to be pioneers in this space.

What has your career path looked like over the years?

It’s been long! I celebrated my 30th year in the games industry this year – so I’m officially old! I started when I was 17 as a freelance print journalist for a magazine called Amstrad Action, writing their ‘adventure column’ under the pseudonym “The Balrog.” (Back in the 90’s it seemed people were less worried about JRR Tolkein’s copyright lawyers!) My first job in game development was as the equivalent of a producer (back then no-one had coined that phrase so we were called project managers). The first game I created (F-15 II Megadrive) fitted on a 1 megabyte memory cartridge. Nowadays a megabyte is a rounding error in game dev!

What is it like to work in the heart of central London?

Amazing. Due to our location we have access to some of the worlds best shops, restaurants and bars all on our doorstep. Trains can be a pain sometimes but London is one of the best cities in the world! We should know – we set Blood & Truth here!

If you could describe London Studio in a few words, what would they be?

I see us as being very much a boutique like studio. Small with super talented craftsmen and women, who make super innovative games for Sony. You only need to look at our heritage over the years to see this – SingStar, Eyetoy, The Getaway and most recently PlayStation VR World!