The industry’s longtime veteran, Jade Raymond, is launching a new studio that will create original games for PlayStation. Raymond announced the news today via the PlayStation Blog. “We want to create worlds where players can escape, have fun, express themselves and find a community,” Raymond wrote of the new studio, Haven. ‘We want to radiate our passion in a project. We want to make something wonderful for people to experience. ”
Raymond is one of the most productive developers of the game industry; her career has played a major role at companies such as Electronic Arts and Ubisoft in leadership roles. Most recently, she was the head of Google’s first party studio, Stadia Games and Entertainment. Earlier this year, however, Google closed its own developer. Although many other developers moved on to new roles, Raymond left the company altogether.
“It’s been a strange and difficult past twelve months,” Raymond wrote. ‘The pandemic, social injustice and the elimination of work have affected many of my closest friends, family and co-workers. All of these factors, coupled with an inability to see friends and family face-to-face, lulled me into a kind of self-reflective cocoon where I had to ask myself some tough questions about what really matters. ”