The designer who spearheaded the creation of Sony’s PSVR for PlayStation 4 has left the company and joined forces with Google, according to a report from VentureBeat.

Richard Marks had been with Sony since 1999, beginning his career with the development of the Eye Toy, (an eye-tracking camera that was

Richard Marks was a key player in the development of a lot of amazing tech for the PlayStation family of consoles. Now Google has him

released for the PlayStation 2), then moving on to the creation of PlayStation Move, and finally the development of Sony’s virtual reality peripheral, PSVR.

VentureBeat points out that Marks is not the only Sony hardware alum to have joined Google recently.

Long time industry veteran Phil Harrison, who was instrumental to the success of the PlayStation brand when it launched in 1995, as well as having served as an executive for Microsoft joined in January of this year. Google has also acquired Jack Buser, who was the head of PlayStation Home, as well as the man who helped create Xbox Live Arcade, Greg Canessa.

As NerdBacon has previously reported, Google is absolutely developing a new device that will deliver gaming content to homes, and the hiring of Marks is the clearly indicative of that. NerdBacon also has learned that the company has been quietly showing their technology to a number of third-parties behind closed doors.

Google’s impending entry into the gaming world will be a major shakeup for the industry and it will be fascinating to watch the moves that the current players – Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft – make to counter this major new competitor.