Obituary: Sony veteran and Denton Designs co-founder John Gibson has passed away

Veteran developer and programming visonary John Gibson has passed away.

As reported by Time Extension, Gibson started out creating games for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum in the early '80s at Imagine Software.

After Imagine went out of business, Gibson co-founded Liverpool-based studio Denton Designs and worked on projects such as Cosmic Wartoad and Gift from the Gods.

Gibson left Denton a few years later to join Psygnosis and became a key member of the company's Advanced Technology Group, where he made significant contributions to CD-ROM title Microcosm.

According to MobyGames, Gibson remained at Psygnosis when the company was purchased by Sony but eventually moved to Warthog in 1998. 

Gibson would find his way back to Sony, however, with the seasoned developer joining Evolution Studios, which was subsequently acquired by the PlayStation maker 2007.

At Sony, Gibson worked on titles including MotorStorm, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, MotorStorm: Apocalypse, and DriveClub. He spent two decades at the company. 

Tributes to Gibson have been pouring in on social media, with former colleague Paul Hughes describing him as a "legend of game development" and others highlighting his status as one of the "pioneers" of the UK game industry.