Jade Raymond

Jade Raymond (born 28 August 1975) is a Canadian video game producer and former executive in charge of Stadia Games and Entertainment, best known as founder of Ubisoft Toronto and Motive Studios.

Jade Raymond
Jade Raymond in 2012
Born	Jade Raymond 28 August 1975 Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Alma mater	McGill University (B.S.)
Employer	Stadia Games and Entertainment

Early life and career

Jade Raymond was born 28 August 1975 in Montreal[1][2] She graduated from St. George's School of Montreal in 1992 and Marianopolis College in 1994. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from McGill University in 1998, where she majored in computer science.[3] Her first post-university job was as a programmer for Sony, where she eventually helped in the creation of Sony Online's first Research and Development group. This led to Electronic Arts where she worked as a producer on The Sims Online. From 2003-2004, Raymond joined the G4 program The Electric Playground as a part-time correspondent, working with Victor Lucas, Tommy Tallarico and Julie Stoffer. In 2004, she started working for Ubisoft Montreal, where she led the creation of the first Assassin's Creed game. Raymond went on to become executive producer on Assassin's Creed II, and was executive producer of new IP at Ubisoft Montreal, which included Watch Dogs and The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot.

In January 2010, Raymond moved to Toronto to build a new studio for Ubisoft in the role of managing director.[4] Raymond is also on the Board of Directors of WIFT-T, an organization dedicated the advancement of women across film, television and screen-based industries.

In July 2015, Raymond announced that she had joined Electronic Arts and formed Motive Studios, based in Montreal. She was also to be in charge of Visceral Games studio, located in California, where she worked with games designer and writer Amy Hennig on Star Wars games[5][6] and also develop new original IP.[7]

In July 2018, Jade Raymond was recognized for “her trailblazing endeavours across her 20-year career” with the Develop “Vanguard Award”.[8] In October 2018 Jade received the “Pioneer Award” from the Fun & Serious Game Festival, recognizing her “contributions to the industry as a producer of games that are considered a turning point in the industry”.[9]

Raymond was one of few video game executives named in the Variety magazine 2018 list of 500 most influential business leaders shaping the global entertainment industry.[10]

On January 9, 2018, Raymond was named to the Board of Directors for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.[11]

She left Motive Studios in October 2018, alluding to a "top secret project".[12][13] In March 2019, Raymond announced that she had joined Google as a vice president; during the 2019 Game Developers Conference, Google affirmed that she will be heading Google's Studios, Stadia Games and Entertainment, to create exclusive content for Google's Stadia streaming service.[14]

On February 1, 2021 she announced her departure from Stadia Games and Entertainment, as well as Google, concurrent with Google's announcement of the wind down for their in-house Stadia Games and Entertainment development studio.[15]

Games

Year	Title	Company	Role	Ref.
2002	The Sims Online	Electronic Arts	Producer	[12]
2007	Assassin's Creed	Ubisoft		[16][17]
2009	Assassin's Creed II		Executive producer	[17]
	Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines			[17]
2013	Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist			[17]
2014	Watch Dogs			[12][17]
2015	The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot	Ubisoft Montreal		[12]

References

1. Bjørn-Hansen, Søren (6 November 2007). "En kvinde blandt nørder". Metro International (in Danish). Archived from the original on 1 June 2008.
2. Bjørn-Hansen, Søren (8 November 2007). "En spelproducent som sticker ut från mängden". Metro International (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 25 January 2008.
3. "JADE RAYMOND, BSc'98". McGill Alumni Live 365. McGill University. 27 October 2009. Archived from the original on 22 July 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
4. Sinclair, Brendan (6 September 2013). "How to build a AAA studio". Gameindustry.biz. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
5. Raymond, Jade. "Motive Studios: Motive, Means And Opportunity". Electronic Arts. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
6. Grosso, Robert (14 July 2015). "Jade Raymond Joins Electronic Arts; Heads New Studio". TechRaptor. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
7. Schreier, Jason (17 October 2017). "EA Shuts Down Visceral Games". Kotaku. Gizmodo Media Group. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
8. Taylor, Haydn (12 July 2018). "Ninja Theory dominates the Develop Awards". gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
9. Bermejillo, Ana (27 September 2018). "Jade Raymond Receives Honorary Award at the Fun & Serious Festival". Digital Journal. Retrieved 27 September 2018.
10. Editorial Board, Variety (30 October 2018). "Variety 500". Variety. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
11. "ELECTRONIC ARTS' JADE RAYMOND JOINS ACADEMY OF INTERACTIVE ARTS & SCIENCES' BOARD OF DIRECTORS" (PDF). Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. 9 January 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
12. Bailey, Dustin (22 October 2018). "Jade Raymond leaves EA Motive, the studio helping put Visceral's Star Wars back together". PCGamesN. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
13. Handrahan, Matthew (10 December 2018). "Jade Raymond: The ecosystem has changed, and games need to catch up". gamesindustry.biz. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
14. Valentine, Rebekah (12 March 2019). "Jade Raymond appointed new VP of Google". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
15. "Focusing on Stadia's future as a platform, and winding down SG&E". Google. 1 February 2021. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
16. Sinclair, Brendan (20 October 2014). "Jade Raymond leaving Ubisoft". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
17. Leonard, Matt (22 October 2018). "Head of EA Motive Jade Raymond Leaves EA". GameRevolution. Evolve Media, LLC. Retrieved 30 December 2018.

External links

• Jade Raymond at IMDb