CastAR’s consumer release might seem a ways off, but the company today announced yet more key hires that will help it get there.
Peter Dille, Former Senior Vice President of Marketing and PlayStation Network at Sony Computer Entertainment (now Sony Interactive Entertainment); Mel M. Heydari, Lead Recruiter for Technical Operations at Google; and Arnie Sen Senior Director of Hardware at Activision, have all joined the augmented reality company. They’ll assist with the development of CastAR itself, a pair of see-through glasses that display virtual images upon a reflective sheet called “retro-reflective”. Using controllers, users can play games with worlds springing up from the mat.
Dille joins the company as Chief Marketing Officer, and arrives after a stint at mobile advertising technology group, Tapjoy. He also helped launch the PlayStation Move motion controller back in 2010, which is now a key part of the PlayStation VR headset. Heydari, meanwhile, joins as Head of Talent having previously held the same role at TiVo. His background is largely in various recruitment roles, so you can expect to see even more hires with him on board.
Finally, Sen takes on the role of VP of Engineering, coming over from Cloud Architecure. At Activision, he had experience working on peripheral-based experiences such as Tony Hawk’s Ride and the Skylanders series.
This is just the latest in a series of hires and developments for the company. Back in August CastAR hired former LucasArts president Darrell Rodriguez as CEO, and last month announced the opening of a new studio in Salt Lake City. Last year the company raised $15 million with the help of Android founder Andy Rubin. As a result, CastAR returned the money it had raised during an earlier Kickstarter campaign, but also postponed the launch of the glasses in the process.
The company is now promising a launch in 2017. That’s as narrow a window as we’re getting at the moment, though.
