EA Hires Assassin's Creed Producer Jade Raymond

Jade Raymond, the former head of Ubisoft Toronto, has announced her latest gig. She will be heading up a new EA-owned developer called Motive Studio.

In her announcement about Motive's founding, Raymond said that the Motive will be based out of Montreal. They'll be collaborating with BioWare, which also has a studio in the city:

Motive will work in close quarters with the BioWare team. Yanick Roy and the BioWare Montreal team are doing some new and exciting things with Mass Effect: Andromeda and it's clear that there is already so much talent to collaborate with on site. And as a player of the latest Battlefield and Dragon Age games, I have experienced what the Frostbite engine can do; and I can't wait to get my hands on it and see what a new team can create!

The studio will also be working on the new Star Wars game now in production at Dead Space developer Visceral Games. Raymond says that she'll be overseeing Visceral in addition to Motive. The Star Wars project is led by Amy Hennig, previously the creative director for the Uncharted series.

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.

Visceral has yet to announce any details on their Star Wars project. They seem to be hinting that the game involves Han Solo and pirates, though. Voice actor Nolan North said at a recent panel discussion that it's "a brand new Star Wars franchise in the style of Uncharted."

This is actually the second time Raymond has worked for EA. In 2002, she was a producer for The Sims Online. She later joined Ubisoft Montreal to serve as producer for the first two Assassin's Creed games and Watch Dogs. Ubisoft named her head of their new Toronto studio in 2010. While there, she was executive producer for Splinter Cell: Blacklist.

Getting back to what I love about making games, creating a new studio, working alongside world-class developers, ideating new IP and being a part of Star Wars...this is going to be fun!

She closed her announcement with a call for resumes. If you're interested in joining Motive Studio, you should send an email to JoinMotive@ea.com.

Pete Haas

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.