Former Google Stadia executive and Assassin's Creed Executive Producer Jade Raymond has announced her next venture: Haven Studios, an indie game developer based out of Montreal.
"I’ve been making games for a long time — over 25 years now!" Raymond exclaimed in a new PlayStation blog post. "I’ve had the opportunity to lead the creation of two highly successful original IPs and build multiple teams and studios from the ground up. Some of these adventures have been more successful than I could have ever imagined, and others less so."
"Getting to bring together experts across so many different creative fields – from music composers, to concept artists, to programmers (yes! programmers are creative too!) into a perfectly synched orchestra that delivers new worlds for players to explore. For me, there is nothing more fulfilling or rewarding I can imagine doing." – Jade Raymond, CEO and Founder of Haven Entertainment Studios
Jade Raymond had monumental success working on the Assassin's Creed franchise, serving as Producer for the original Assassin's Creed game before moving up to Executive Producer of the sequel and a few other games at Ubisoft, as well as leading creation of new IP, and being managing director of Ubisoft Toronto during her time at Ubisoft. Following her work at Ubisoft, she became the head of Motive Studios — a developer that eventually created Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Star Wars: Squadrons (although she was gone well before the latter was released)
She later landed a major role at Google serving as a Vice President in charge of its "Stadia" project. Despite her best efforts, Google announced the closure of its internal game developers early last month. Stadia had spent tens of millions to get big-name games on the platform, but it still ultimately failed to hit its sales targets and Raymond eventually left the company altogether.
Raymond has now announced the formation of Haven Studios as her next new venture. This new Montreal-based indie developer is backed by Sony, and it certainly sounds like she's excited to get back to work.
"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 added.
What is Jade Raymond Making the First Game at Haven Studios?
One might wonder what Haven Studios' first game will be. Work has already started, but Jade Raymond is playing her cards pretty close to the chest for now.
"Together, we want to create games that are a haven for players, and we want to build a studio that is a haven for developers," Raymond concluded. "So, while we don’t have many details to announce today, I want the PlayStation community to know that Haven Studios is already hard at work on an unannounced IP. We can’t wait to show you more!"
You can keep up with this new indie developer at havenstudios.com. Hopefully, we'll get a glimpse at Jade Raymond's new project sooner rather than later.
What do you think of Jade Raymond forming a new indie developer? Do you think she'll be able to match the success of her past work on the Assassin's Creed franchise? Let us know in the comments below!
