Jade Raymond, the producer on the original Assassin's Creed and the former managing director of Ubisoft Toronto, has joined Electronic Arts. The industry veteran will be building a new studio under the publisher's umbrella named Motive Studios, which will be based in Montreal, Canada. It'll start by supporting Visceral Games on the production of Amy Hennig's new Star Wars game.
"I cannot think of a more exciting time to be a part of EA than right now," she said as part of a statement. "In the first conversations I had with Patrick Söderlund, we talked about the games that we love and the opportunities that we saw for the future. We talked about how EA wants to deliver more innovative experiences and more of what players are asking for. It's energising to see EA today bringing more passion than ever to the games that they make, and passion to getting it right for players."
In addition to building the new studio, Raymond will also be overseeing Visceral Games following the departure of Steve Papoutsis earlier in the year. "I've known Amy for years and have admired her work on the Uncharted games," she said. "I'm thrilled that the first big project that we will work on in Montreal will have Amy as creative director. An opportunity to work with her and the Visceral team, and to play in the Star Wars universe, is once-in-a-lifetime stuff."
Raymond departed Ubisoft in October last year after a decade working her way up the corporate ladder. At the time she said that she was eager to "pursue other ambitions and new opportunities". She does mention new intellectual property a lot in her statement, so hopefully once this new Star Wars title is wrapped up, she'll be given the opportunity to flex her creative muscles a bit.
Either way, this is a pretty big coup for EA, which has been snapping up talent left, right, and centre of late. Let's just hope that it doesn't squander it...
[source ea.com]
Comments 12
Id like to flex her creative muscles…eh right
But yes, seems EA are really trying to move out of the generic title box they seem to have backed themsrlves into.
Perhaps shell be on the new Mass Effect?
@ToOGoodOfAPlaya She does mention BioWare, but it sounds like Motive will be focusing on the Star Wars game.
@get2sammyb Well, I thought she did a sterling job on AC, despite its faults it was a huge leap forward ingenuity wise.
Im looking forward to Star Wars and if theres a new truly next gen Mass Effect Ill be over the moon!
Was that comment really necessary? We'll see you in a couple of weeks when you've had time to think about what you just said. - get2sammyb
Glad to see she's landed on her feet, just hope EA don't waste her talents.
Well, I've always liked her, and while her new project sounds cool......it's EA. That alone always worries me.
Good on her. I like her. She seems genuinely enthusiastic.
Oh and @get2sammyb well played banning that muppet. He's always spouting nonsense on here, thankfully he's mostly ignored.
@adf86
They've wasted one of the great Western RPG studios of all-time and can't even deliver a good, fully featured sports game anymore. Jade Raymond is a talented woman, unfortunately she's just going to be another name on the EA roster who does nothing. I don't like being negative like that but that's all this company seems to do. Waste whatever good people it has.
@Gamer83 I think thats what everyones afraid of.
I hope she can just push and be heard, male them fools at the top realise they need to step up their game so to speak.
She is an excellent Director and Henig is probably one of the best writers in Video Games right now, so i'm pretty intrigued to see what these 2 can come up with.
@ToOGoodOfAPlaya
That'd be nice but I think with EA, the company is just going to do what it's going to do. Jade Raymond adds another respected name to EA's list of employees but it seems like people just go there and then fall off the map. Have seen this for years now and sadly I don't think it will be changing any time soon.
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