Producer of original Assassin’s Creed starts new game studio Haven
Now out on her own, industry veteran Jade Raymond has started a new independent development studio that’s working on a new IP for PlayStation.
Sometimes, game creators end up having a string of bad luck. After leaving Ubisoft, Raymond joined EA back in 2015 to help form Motive Studios, a team that would be working on a major new Star Wars project with ex-Naughty Dog designer and writer Amy Hennig. Unfortunately, the game would end up cancelled.
After leaving Motive in 2018, she ended up joining the team of a secret new video game project: Google Stadia. And, well, we all now know that things with Google’s first-party game development for Stadia haven’t gone well, with Raymond leaving the company last month.
Hopefully, things will turn out better for Raymon at Haven Studios. If nothing else, at least now she’ll be in charge of her own destiny, rather than being part of a bigger company that could cancel any project at any moment.
“As I took stock of my career over the last few years and started to think about what to do next, I came to a very simple conclusion: I need to get back to what I love doing most, and do so in a way that gives our team the freedom to explore, inspire, and create,” Raymond wrote today in a post on the official PlayStation blog.
“It’s time for us to refocus on GAMES in a place where we can practice our crafts without any barriers or impediments. We want to create worlds where players can escape, have fun, express themselves, and find community. We want to pour our passion into a project. We want to make something wondrous for people to experience. Because we believe in the power of games to bring joy to people’s lives.”
Haven Studios’ first project will be an unnamed new property that, from how the blog post is worded, seems to be a PlayStation exclusive (at least for a period of time). While there’s no confirmation which platform “PlayStation” means exactly, it’s hard not to assume PlayStation 5 (given the game is no doubt still at least a few years away).
Image credit: ZCooperstown
Source: PlayStation Blog
Mollie got her start in games media via the crazy world of gaming fanzines, and now works at EGM with the goal of covering all of the weird Japanese and niche releases that nobody else on staff cares about. She’s active in the gaming community on a personal level, and an outspoken voice on topics such as equality in gaming, consumer rights, and good UI. Check her out on Twitter and Mastodon.
