Jade Raymond has left Haven Studios, the PlayStation-owned studio she founded
Sony acquired the Assassin’s Creed producer’s studio in 2022
Veteran producer Jade Raymond has left Haven Studios, the company she founded in 2021.
According to a new report by Bloomberg, Raymond – who rose to prominence after producing Assassin’s Creed and executive producing Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines and Watch Dogs – has left her studio, which is still in the process of developing online shooter Fairgames.
Although a reason wasn’t given for Raymond’s departure, the report cites sources who note that an external test of Fairgames took place several weeks ago, and that some developers were concerned about how it was received.
The departure rounds off an eventful decade for Raymond, who left Ubisoft to found EA‘s Motive Studio in 2015, before leaving in 2018 for Google Stadia.
After Google decided to close its internal games development teams in 2021, Raymond left her position as Stadia’s development boss and, along with five co-founders and around 20 ex-Google employees, launched Haven Studios, a Montreal-based outfit with PlayStation funding its first game (which turned out to be Fairgames). Sony then announced in 2022 that it was acquiring the studio for an undisclosed price.
“Jade Raymond has been an incredible partner and visionary force in founding Haven Studios,” a PlayStation spokesperson told Bloomberg. “We are deeply grateful for her leadership and contributions, and we wish her all the best in her next chapter.”
They added that PlayStation is “committed to supporting Haven Studios and excited to continue the journey”, implying that development on Fairgames will proceed, even though Sony has cancelled numerous other online multiplayer projects in recent months.
Earlier this year, it was reported that Sony had cancelled live service games in development at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games, the latter reportedly being a live service God of War title.
The decision followed the failure of online game Concord, which Sony pulled from sale and took offline within just two weeks of its release.
Haven Studios will now be led by Marie-Eve Danis and Pierre-François Sapinski, following Raymond’s departure.
Fairgames was originally revealed back in May 2023 with a CGI trailer, and was described at the time by creative director Mathieu Leduc as “a fresh, modern take on the heist genre”.
“In a nutshell, this is a thrilling competitive heist game where you join an underground movement to rob the ultra-rich and rebalance the scales,” he said.
