Jade Raymond’s new studio is reportedly set to work closely with PlayStation 5 lead system architect Mark Cerny on its debut game.
Last year, the veteran producer behind Assassin’s Creed and EA’s Motive studio left her position as Stadia’s development boss after Google decided to close its internal games development teams.
Along with five co-founders and about 20 ex-Google employees, she launched Haven Entertainment Studios, a Montreal, Canada-based outfit whose first game is an original IP funded by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
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According to a new studio profile by Le Devoir, Haven has tripled in size since its March 2021 announcement and is continuing to staff up for its debut game, which the article describes as “a persistent, scalable online environment” for PS5 and PC.
The title, which is seemingly one of 10 live service games Sony plans to launch by 2026, will reportedly benefit from a soon to be confirmed collaboration with PS5 architect Cerny.
“Our ambition will be to push the technical capabilities of the console further,” said Raymond.
Fellow Haven co-founder Paola Jouyaux added: “We will have the opportunity to work with people at Sony who are among the best in the world at what they do. This will allow us to create games of the highest quality.”
In a GamesIndustry.biz interview last year, Raymond said Haven’s ambition was to create a new IP that serves as a “social platform” for players, and one that is “designed to be owned by the fans”.
“The pandemic has proven that gameplay is the social glue that binds communities,” she said. “Especially for the younger generation, this is what you do and how you make friends and hang out. That is something that we really want to build and design for.
“The second thing is thinking about the ‘remix generation’,” Raymond continued. “It started a little while ago, there is this age of self-expression where we’re designing our NikeID shoes, we’re reading our friends blogs rather than what our professional journalists are writing. And I think that has continued to go further with things like TikTok.
“That’s another thing that we’re thinking about at the heart of this IP. It is beyond user-generated content, it is about taking that self-expression and remix concept to the next level.”
