We don’t often write about employment news in the games industry but this latest bit of news at 343 Industries and Naughty Dog could be massive in the battle between Microsoft and Sony.

Corrinne Yu, the principal engine architect at 343 Industries for Halo 4 and considered to be the most important member of the team in making Halo 4 look as amazing as it did, has left the Microsoft first-party studio and joined Sony’s flagship first-party studio, Naughty Dog.

Yu is one of the top women in the games industry and regularly featured on lists of influential women in the industry. She’s been working in games since the 1980s when she was a programmer on the King’s Quest series. She’s since moved on to a number of developers before becoming Director of Technology at Gearbox Software in 2006 and Principal Engine Architect at 343 Industry in 2008.

Yu’s specialty is working on lighting technology. When at Gearbox, she worked on modifying the Unreal 3 engine to improve lighting and shadows. At 343, Yu developed new lighting technology that Microsoft felt compelled to apply for a software patent for.

Her official title and project at Naughty Dog hasn’t been disclosed yet. Her LinkedIn profile says that she’s doing “graphics coding on PS4” at Naughty Dog but nothing more specific than that. It’s entirely likely that she’s working on graphics for Uncharted 4 but recent rumours suggest that Crash Bandicoot has re-entered the PlayStation stable and it would be logical to return the IP to its original developer.

The hiring of Yu by Naughty Dog and Sony Computer Entertainment can be seen as nothing short of a massive coup for the PlayStation 4. Considering how good Uncharted and The Last of Us looked at the end of the PS3’s life and the massive leap in graphics we’ve already seen from the likes of Killzone: Shadow Fall, you have to wonder how much further graphics can be pushed. If there’s one woman who can push graphics to be the best they can be, it’s Corrinne Yu.

Sources: NeoGAF, VG24/7