Google hires Sony’s PlayStation VR guru and Magic Lab head Richard Marks
venturebeat.com/2018/07/30/google-hires-sonys...
venturebeat.comPosted Jul 30, 2018, 10:36 PM UTC
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venturebeat.comSony themselves want big players in the VR scene. They must have been disappointed when MS pulled out VR from Xbox.
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Don't imagine that MS haven't seriously considered it. Think the way the kinect was received and turned out gave them a more sceptical point of view on innovation which in turn has held them back imo.
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Didn't they put something out once PlayStation revealed PSVR that said Xbox VR would be a true experience or something?
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Or happy since they have a monopoly on the VR console market.
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It can't grow properly if they are the only ones.
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I still think later down the track they will consider it, allow for WMR headmounts to be usable on the Xbox. I mean they have big franchises like Halo, Minecraft, Gears of War, Forza that will be guarantee VR hits if they ever decide to enter the market and then they also have the Kinect technology. They probably just see it as not the time yet.
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Actually this is not that good for SONY Playstation, he was head of developement. He's responsible for ideas that became part of products.
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There are a lot of other gurus out there too. VR is a field that is constantly getting researched these days by engineers.
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Hes head of tech not games. So we already have our tech and highly assume new or updated forms of that tech are coming in the next 2 or 3 years. It means their shuffling around their ideas and coming up with news forms of tech uninvolved with this original guy.
Same guy made the eye toy, moves, and psvr it sounds like sony is going a whole new direction with their next iteration.
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That's one hell of a spin. But no, this is not good for Bitcoin PSVR.
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Actually this is not that good for SONY Playstation, he was head of developement. He's responsible for ideas that became part of products.
Agree, he's been with Sony for more than 18 Years
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-himi-richard-marks-sony-20171208-htmlstory.html
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username doesn't check out
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This guy's been around forever. I remember when he showed off eye toy tech on ps2 that would follow colored objects, which eventually evolved to move on ps3
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He wasn't just a VR guy tho, he could we working on anything over at Google.
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Something involving cameras and motion sensing, since that's what he's been working on since before Wii was even a twinkle in Nintendo's eye.
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THis...most likely he's developing the console/controllers etc.
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worked at Sony since 1999, and for much of that time he ran Sony’s Magic Lab, a small group dedicated to far-out ideas for video game technology. He has a doctorate in philosophy, aeronautics, and astronautics from Stanford University. He got his bachelor’s in aeronautical and astronautical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Maybe he was mad about not being involved in the making of Astrobot?
Just kidding... hope the guy will not feel unchallenged by his new job! :)
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That's a big loss for PlayStation.
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I guess he did all he could and because this version still got a few years left, he couldn't move forward with the next version. Sorry to see him go.
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I think this is a good sign that the tech for psvr2 will be different and will have a different vision. The tech he helped create is not longer needed and his job at this point is basically halted with sony...
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Wow. Richard Marks left Sony. I remember his E3 Move demos. Well, I wish him luck.
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He's now working for Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group. Which has been responsible in the past for highly experimental ideas such as Google's project Tango (used to develop ARcore) and the canned project Ara (a modular concept). While it's possible he'll work on VR there it's just as likely he'll be working on something like their current Project soli (an advanced sensor that uses radar to track gestures). I imagine he made the move as ATAP is a similar environment to Magic Labs but is not solely gaming focused. Most likely means very little for PSVR however these moves happen all the time in the tech sector.
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Shit is getting real!!! Very excited about this.
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I'm feeling pretty confident with the speculation that Google is going to make a serious bid in the gaming console business. What form that takes is still anyone's guess. Lots of people are speculating that a streaming console might be their bid, what with their widely distributed datacenter resources. It makes a lot of sense. However, if this hire means anything more than Google hiring a competent engineer... maybe not. Maybe Google will be bringing actual horsepower to the table to throw their hat in the high-end VR ring.
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What that means?
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It means a guy who used to work for Sony now works for Google.
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I really don't understand
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[deleted]
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I heard that he’s a good singer
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Wow, this is a major loss for Sony and for us. It honestly makes me think Sony has secretly given up on VR and whether Google attempts to build tech for a Google console or not kind of doesn't matter because Google has billions to waste, burp and move on to the next thing.
While there are many gurus for VR and other tech Sony must have had some notion that Richard Marks getting a job elsewhwere wouldn't go unnoticed and it seems that they didn't think enough of the PSVR community to make some sort of statement that the Magic Lab is rebuilt or a new leader of the Lab is already in place or anything. For all we know the Magic Lab could have been completely dissolved and then what should we believe about the future development of PSVR?
It's just very strange coming only a few weeks behind learning that the QA process is inefficient with language barrier problems, a lack of transparency problems and general lack of organization that's resulted in multiple unecessary game release delays and public outing of Sony teabagging certification approval in a lot more than one case.
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That's one hell of a leap.
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Richard Marks was the face of both the Magic Lab and PSVR for 18 years. He didn't retire, he may have been forced out. Why should that be taken lightly?
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Forced out? Have you heard of poaching?
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Maybe, but as long as Marks has been with Sony if Sony weren't willing to match whatever other companies were offering he would have been gone long ago.
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So dramatic.
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There are still a lot of engineers at Magic Lab, as far as I know. They aren't involved in the QA process, as far as I can tell.
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Sony had a VR guru, but couldn't work out how to put analogue sticks on the Moves or provide accurate tracking?
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What makes you think they "couldn't work it out"?
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Well they put an analog stick on the navcon. And the motion sensing is as good as Oculus touch, and you don't need to recalibrate it every time windows hiccups
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Montion sensing as good as Touch? C'mon dude, take your head out of your ass. And by looking at the down votes I see people cannot take a joke about their beloved piece of plastic.
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Correct me if im wrong but this doesn't mean anything positive for the PSVR?
A rising tide raises all ships. High-profile engineers move around all the time. They stick around for the part they can contribute to, and then move on to another project. If Google hired him to work on a high-end VR product, this is very good for PSVR in the grand scheme of things.
I agree.
No. This is a huge loss
i disagree, competition is good, and if google ups its game so will sony.. i think thats what the_hoser is saying in the previous comment too.
It's not competition when you swipe employees though. Google even has arrangements with other companies not to do this (apple for example)
headhunted, and he was with sony for many many years, maybe his time was up ? we will never truly know.