Founder Jade Raymond Departs PlayStation's Haven Studios
Discouraging news for the unfortunately named Fairgame$.
In a somewhat shocking move, Jade Raymond has departed Haven Studios, the Sony first-party developer formed in 2021. The studio has not released anything; it has been working on a competitive heist service game, Fairgame$, ever since. Raymond’s exodus doesn’t inspire much confidence in what would always be a tough sell.
Word comes to us via a report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, and the reasons for the leadership shakeup were not given to Haven staff. Apparently, feedback from a recent external test of Fairgame$ caused some concern among devs at the studio and its progress. We did get an expectedly corporate statement from Sony:
“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.” A spokesperson from the firm went on to say that Sony is “committed to supporting Haven Studios and excited to continue the journey” under new co-studio heads (another worrying sign), Marie-Eve Danis and Pierre-François Sapinsk.
As a producer of the original Assassin’s Creed, Raymond’s high-profile career has been marred by a series of non-starters. After leaving Ubisoft, she founded Motive Studios under EA in 2015 and led the development of Star Wars: Battlefront II. In 2018, Raymond jumped to Google and helmed the development of the infamous Stadia. Once Google and a few dozen other ex-employees closed their internal game dev teams in 2021, she founded Haven, which Sony would acquire in 2022. That investment appears to be among several questionable decisions made by former PlayStation boss Jim Ryan, who, in turn, left SIE in 2023.