It is with a heavy heart that I must report the untimely death of Ian Saunter who worked in the Computer games industry from the very early days through to his death on January 17th 2023 aged 66.
Ian served as:
- Sales and Product Director at Logotron (Education software)
- Development Director at Millennium Interactive (Games – all genres and formats); Creature Labs (AI, arcade games, toys)
- Studio Director at Sony Computer Entertainment
- Creative Director at Gameware (Television, Mobile Apps, EU projects).
Ian was buried in France on January 19th 2023 and a memorial service will be held for him in the UK on March 10th – to celebrate his life and achievements. It was Ian’s ambition to reach 100 million users of creative initiatives in which he was involved. In the 1980’s this was an enormous challenge but one that he comfortably met and surpassed with the coming of the Internet and the power of digital distribution.
On set during the filming of BAMZOOKi series 4
During his time at Gameware, Ian was Project Director responsible for four series of BAMZOOKi, the CBBC gameshow and still a world leading exemplar of mixed reality TV. The Gameware Production team were nominated for a BAFTA in 2004 for their work on the show.
During his career, Ian contributed to over 100 game and technology products. Always thinking ahead of the curve, Ian realised the potential for augmented reality on mobile devices even before the launch of the iPhone in 2007 and this led to the patent claim for HARVEE – Handheld Augmented Reality Virtual Entertainment Engine ( now lapsed).
A tribute was paid to Ian during the final Monitoring meeting of IV4XR – the XR bot testing project in which he had been contributing from 2019 – until his demise.
Ian will be greatly missed, not only by his friends and family but also by the many professional colleagues with whom he always established a respectful rapport – Evert looking to bring the best out of those in his orbit. His loyalty, intelligence, vision and great sense of humour will live on in the memories of all those lucky enough to have made his acquaintance.