NEWS
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NEWS
Former Ubisoft Toronto director Jade Raymond joins EA as head of new studio
Former managing director of Ubisoft Toronto Jade Raymond will be heading up a new studio under Electronic Arts Inc, the California-based publisher said in a statement, and one of the studios first games will be a new Star Wars title.
Raymond left Ubisoft Toronto in October 2014, and now EA has announced that she will be heading up a new game studio called Motive Studios, which will be based out of Montreal, Canada.
“Motive will be a creative-driven team, incubating entirely new IP and taking on some amazing projects,” Raymond said in a statement on EA’s website. “The first one is going to be really exciting – we’re going to work on Amy Hennig’s Star Wars game!”
Hennig’s game has yet to receive an official announcement, but she had previously worked on third-person action-adventure games like the Uncharted series and Crystal Dynamics’ Legacy of Kain series.
She added, “In addition to building the new Motive Studio in Montreal, I will also oversee the Visceral studio in California. I’m a huge fan of the games that have come out of Visceral and I feel honoured to be working with such a talented team led by studio GM Scott Probst. I’ve also known Amy for years and have admired her work on the Uncharted games! 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 also noted that Motive would be working closely with BioWare, who has previously developed successful Star Wars games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Raymond had first made a name for herself at Ubisoft at its relatively new Toronto branch, which was created in 2009. So far, Ubisoft Toronto’s main claims to fame (or infamy) are Far Cry 4 and Assassin’s Creed: Unity. While Far Cry 4 was considered a successful release, even if it was more or less a carbon copy of the previous game, Assassin’s Creed: Unity was widely derided for its abysmal performance, both on console and especially on PC.
Despite the performance issues, however, Assassin’s Creed: Unity received generally positive critiques for its story and gameplay.
Image by ZCooperstown (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
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