Canadian games industry veteran Jade Raymond has formally announced her new studio venture, Haven Studios. The former Ubisoft executive producer and recent lead of Stadia Games and Entertainment has established a new creative house in Montreal.
Alongside the announcement of Haven Studios, Raymond revealed that the studio’s first project will be an original IP developed for PlayStation. While speaking on the PlayStation Blog, Raymond stated that Haven Studios is established to be an independent studio. However, the team is “already hard at work on an unannounced IP” for PlayStation.
Over the course of her career, Raymond has built an industry-leading portfolio. Her first major splash in the industry is often attributed to her role as producer on the first Assassin’s Creed game in 2004. She later transitioned to become the executive producer on multiple Ubisoft titles including Assassin’s Creed II and Watch Dogs. In 2010, Raymond helped establish the Ubisoft Toronto office before leaving the company in 2015 to join EA.
More recently, Raymond served as Stadia chief, leading Stadia Games and Entertainment starting in 2019. However, that stint was rather short-lived. Raymond left the company in February at the same time Google announced it would be closing its internal Stadia studios.
Reflecting on her career thus far, Raymond states that “It’s been a strange and difficult past 12 months.” Furthermore, she speaks positively about the prospect of the new studio. In the blog post, Raymond states that it has given her the opportunity to work alongside “many of the talented game developers I have worked with for years”.
“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. And Sony does, too. Their commitment to excellence is unmatched. It’s why I couldn’t be happier for their backing and support.”
Head of PlayStation Studios Herman Hulst spoke on the partnership established between PlayStation and Haven Studios.
“Sony Interactive Entertainment is proud to support and invest in Haven and its future,” said Hermen Hulst, Head of PlayStation Studios. “We understand the challenges and rewards of building creative teams from the ground up, as does Jade with her wealth of experience helming many of gaming’s biggest franchises. We’re confident in and excited for the bright future of Haven Studios and its first project, currently in development.”
As expected, Raymond and Sony are keeping this new project under wraps. Haven Studios has created a website for updates, though as of writing the site is fairly barebones.