Sony's David Perry departs for Instagram influencer marketing firm

David Perry has left PlayStation in order to set up a new venture of his own - this time, with a focus on influencers.

Perry is perhaps best known as the former head of Gaikai, one of the earliest games streaming services that explored the possibility of delivering video games through the cloud.

He retained his position as CEO after Sony acquired the business in 2012 for $380m, later renaming and launching it as PlayStation Now. Prior to Gaikai, he has also worked at Virgin Games, Acclaim and Shiny Entertainment.

Perry left Sony last month and has now resurfaced as the CEO of GoVyrl, a new start-up he co-founded that focuses on Instagram influencer marketing.

The premise is that GoVyrl allows influencers to find businesses they want to work with, with a Tinder-like app allowing them to swipe through the various projects.

Pocket Gamer reports Perry met the GoVyrl team via a school entrepreneurship program and was keen to push the concept further.

In a LinkedIn update, he wrote: "I personally believe authentic influencer marketing has a much brighter future than all the friction and annoyance we used to accept from old-school TV, magazine and even online banner advertising."

While GoVyrl is not a games-specific business, influencer marketing is becoming increasingly common in the games industry and Perry will no doubt use his contacts to connect influencers with games publishers as the firm grows,

We recently looked at the impact influencers had on EA's E3 press conference.