Jade Raymond has departed Sony’s Haven Studios, the developer that she founded in 2021, with the development of their first title, Fairgames (stylised as Fairgame$) yet to be completed for PlayStation.
The reporting by Bloomberg digs into the situation surrounding her departure, stating that PlayStation leadership did not give Haven’s staff a reason for her departure, but that it came several weeks after an external test of Fairgames – according to people with knowledge of the matter. Apparently, the team at Haven are a bit concerned about how the game was received and its general progress.
In a statement to Bloomberg, a PlayStation spokesperson confirmed Raymond’s departure. “Jade Raymond has been an incredible partner and visionary force in founding Haven Studios. We are deeply grateful for her leadership and contributions, and we wish her all the best in her next chapter.”
However, they are “committed to supporting Haven Studios and excited to continue the journey” and the studio will now have a pair of co-studio heads in the form of Marie-Eve Danis and Pierre-François Sapinski.
Announced in 2023 and in development for PlayStation and PC, Fairgames is one of the many live service titles that PlayStation greenlit at the tail end of Jim Ryan’s tenure. We haven’t seen or heard anything about the game since it was revealed, arriving with a slick cinematic trailer that showed a multiplayer heist ’em up with PvPvE elements. In other words, it’s an extraction shooter, a high tech modern take on Hood: Outlaws and Legends.
Jade Raymond is one of the best-known known individuals in the games industry, though mainly for the string of new studios that she has founded and ventures that she has led over the past decade. Having been a producer and then executive producer through the early years of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, she went on to work on the first Watch Dogs before moving on from Ubisoft. In 2015 she founded Motive Studios at EA, intent on making Star Wars games in partnership with Visceral Games and Amy Hennig. We all know how that turned out, but Motive did craft the single player for Star Wars Battlefront II during her tenure and has become a core part of EA’s line up of studios.
Following Battlefront II’s release, Raymond left to join Google as head of Stadia Games and Entertainment… and we know how that turned out. Then, with fresh funding and backing from Sony’s push to make live service games, she founded Haven Studios, and got to work on Fairgames. While we don’t know Farigames’ fate, we do know how Sony’s live service plan has been turning out…
Source: Bloomberg
