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Jade Raymond introduces Haven, a new Montreal-based game development studio working on an original, new IP for PlayStation

Papacheeks

Banned
LOL, there are no set criteria or guidebook for how or when any company should be able to purchase a game development studio. History or not, money talks.

Not saying there is, just elaborating the differences in culture in how both companies approach acquiring talent. Sony's is a very organic way of doing business. They have a long history of making/funding games from independent studios over long periods of time and then offering a partnership that leads to acquisitions. Microsoft literally just whipped out their checkbook and bought/created studios with the biggest names in their fields. They had a long standing relationship with Epic and honestly i feel buying epic would have been the next move for them to keep making games with the way their relationship was. But sounds like there was some spilt milk a while back that soured any idea of that notion. Like during Cliffy B days.
 

martino

Member
Sony has a history of signing exclusive contracts for new entries in games that were once multi-plat that goes back to the PS1. I'm not saying this stuff is ethically wrong; it's just business. But the people trying to frame it as an ethical argument to say why one is good and the other is bad, or try saying Microsoft purchasing Zenimax is "wrong", don't seem to understand how the world of business doesn't care about petulant console war-esque bantering.
this and we know how this business move will be told (if successful) : Sony is nurturing talent and creating partnership.
Fan humanizing corporation (whatever the one) are depressing me.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
Neat news. I remember hearing her name around 2007 with the first AC, jeeze that was a long time ago, I was in high school then. Though actual output from her has been sparse since then with a series of unfortunate events, very interested in seeing a new studio under her creating new IP, great move by Sony too.


Get it, Jade.
 
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Papacheeks

Banned
Yeah, I guess they never purchased Naughty Dog (2001, well after the Crash trilogy and CTR), Psygnosis (1993), Zipper Interactive, Guerrilla Games (2011, well after the first three Killzone games), Sigil Games Online Inc., Evolution Studios (2007) , Media Molecule (2010, after signing an exclusivity deal with SCEI in 2006), Sucker Punch (2011), Gaikai (cloud streaming), Audio Kinetic, and Insomniac huh?

Both Sony and Microsoft have made acquisitions and will continue to do so. Trying to say one has cultivated talent internally or grown their teams while the other hasn't is false, as Microsoft have cultivated some of their teams as well such as Turn 10 and Playground Games. And the argument that Microsoft has only gone after purchases with no history on their platform is also false; Zenimax/Bethesda in particular have a long-running history with the company going back to the early 2000s' with Morrowind, if not even earlier than that.

All of this trying to justify one company's 1P growth as "organic" and genuine and the other as fake and unearned, it's all a 100% fake argument, at the end of the day.



So did you feel the same way when Street Fighter V became a PS4/PC exclusive? Because the common talking point thrown out there is that Sony helped co-fund development and helped sponsor Capcom Cup but...no one seriously believes Capcom was not going to develop a follow-up to SF4. It may've not come out in 2016 but in hindsight a delay would've been for the better.

Sony has a history of signing exclusive contracts for new entries in games that were once multi-plat that goes back to the PS1. I'm not saying this stuff is ethically wrong; it's just business. But the people trying to frame it as an ethical argument to say why one is good and the other is bad, or try saying Microsoft purchasing Zenimax is "wrong", don't seem to understand how the world of business doesn't care about petulant console war-esque bantering.

Sony still is funding money for Evo. Sony still helps hold money for tournaments in the fighting scene. Where is Microsoft? People are begging for more Killer Instinct, but it looks like it's pretty much dead and on life support at this time. Evo show runners seem to be the only ones pushing that game in any capacity.

This was in 2019 :https://www.eventhubs.com/news/2019...apparent-announcement-sony-come-during-event/

Evo was mostly if not all online last year because of covid and playstation has been sponsoring tourney streams all year.

They have a huge investment with Capcom, and it's not just for street fighter V, Resident evil.


 
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Every purchase was based on numerous collaborations of projects. Where were these so called projects for xbox before they bought rare? Obsidian? Bethesda? Lion head? Lion head was indpendent for over a decade before being bought and really fable was the only game they made specifically for xbox. From my understanding that game was coming to PC originally, but Microsoft wanted it on xbox. Then bought them couple years later.

Semantics, and again, trying to make a business argument an ethical one when no ethics (human or civil) are being violated. If you read the rest of the post I mentioned of some of the longer-running collaborations between Microsoft and some of the studios they acquired, namely Zenimax/Bethesda.

And no, the game was "coming to PC" but it took Microsoft's funding to make it happen because Bethesda were cash-strapped in the early 2000s. That helped them get the funding they needed and also to set up Zenimax. Anyway, trying to qualify "oh this one's doing it more ethically" by quantity of numbered collaborations is dumb, because some of the Sony ones I mentioned were also either low in quantity or IP variety. Naughty Dog for instance, only did a single IP for Sony before being purchased. Some of the others mirror that with even less installments.


Back then Capcom was in financial troubles so they signed several exclusivity deals with Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo to get some cash. In the case of Sony, they did choose Street Fighter. Sony funded and outsourced the PS4 USFIV port, put money for the Capcom Pro Tour eSports and partially funded SFV in exchange on full console exclusivity for SFV series and 'next gen exclusivity of USFIV'.

According to Capcom, SFV development would have been delayed a couple of years because they didn''t have money to fund it. This is, development start would have started a couple of years later and its release would have been in 2018. Thanks to Sony's money they were able to start working on it and to release it earlier. Without Sony the game release would have been the same but 2 years later and multiplatform.

I'm aware of every single thing you just mentioned, but the point wasn't to ask on the specifics. It was me asking that poster if they had similar animosity towards Sony making that venture as they seem to have to Microsoft purchasing Zenimax, on the grounds that in both cases you are dealing with publishers and IP that have multiplatform status.

Because if Sony's funding Capcom for SFV development helped it get produced quicker (which it did; and to be perfectly honest, 2018 would've been the better time for it to come out because that's when the game first felt "complete" as a package), then the same can be said of Microsoft's purchase of Obsidian to help fund games they otherwise would not be able to make, and the same can be said for Zenimax. Hell, we had the group saying as such in the roundtable.

So, again, I have no problem that Sony helped fund SFV development and got console exclusivity as a result (or similarly what they did with Microsoft and Dead Rising 4). The issue is with people using the Zenimax purchase as a reinforcement for a false narrative that Microsoft has not cultivated any internal talent or grown studios post-acquisition, and the equally false narrative that Sony has always grown teams internally, hasn't purchased outside talent to make it 1P, didn't start the practice of timed exclusivity (tho on this one they may technically be correct because Nintendo actually started that with their strict licensing agreements on the Famicom/NES) or don't leverage the power of purchasing developers.

The only actual difference between the two (because yes, MS have mismanaged some studios mainly 343i but Sony also mismanaged studios like RAD and Evolution, Liverpool etc., and both have shut down studios as well) is that Sony hasn't purchased an actual publisher, but Microsoft purchased Zenimax mainly for their developers and technologies; them having a self-managed publishing arm is an added bonus.

Sony buying developers that already made games for their consoles is not the same as what MS is doing by purchasing publishers and developers that made games for everything.

Please stop likening the two.

You're basically making an argument on frivolous particularities as some implied ethical take. Back when Sony entered the industry no one else purchased exclusivity contracts for future game installments that already had prior entries on multiple competitor consoles, either, but it happened anyway. Why? Because Sony were competing in a free market where being able to leverage your resources (even if your opponents lack those resources) is favored as that is the benefit of capitalism.

I imagine there were plenty of Sega and Nintendo fans throwing similar temper tantrums at Sony back in the day on obscure message boards and chats for doing things otherwise 100% legal only they could really do due to their corporate structure and financial capacity, as we're seeing today from yourself and many others having temper tantrums over Microsoft playing to their own corporate structure and financial strengths in ways that are 100% legal.

Want to get mad at something over this? Get mad at capitalism and the legal system. But then you'd have to get equally mad at every corporate ever for the past 100 years, and that just exposes how dumb these temper tantrums are doesn't it?
 
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Sony buying developers that already made games for their consoles is not the same as what MS is doing by purchasing publishers and developers that made games for everything.

Please stop likening the two.
There is no difference. Sony would be doing the same shit if they were in a position to do so. Jim Ryan would salivate at the thought of getting Starfield and Elder Scrolls as exclusives. Hell, he tried to buy out Starfield and failed. It must have really impressed him.
 

Papacheeks

Banned
Semantics, and again, trying to make a business argument an ethical one when no ethics (human or civil) are being violated. If you read the rest of the post I mentioned of some of the longer-running collaborations between Microsoft and some of the studios they acquired, namely Zenimax/Bethesda.

And no, the game was "coming to PC" but it took Microsoft's funding to make it happen because Bethesda were cash-strapped in the early 2000s. That helped them get the funding they needed and also to set up Zenimax. Anyway, trying to qualify "oh this one's doing it more ethically" by quantity of numbered collaborations is dumb, because some of the Sony ones I mentioned were also either low in quantity or IP variety. Naughty Dog for instance, only did a single IP for Sony before being purchased. Some of the others mirror that with even less installments.




I'm aware of every single thing you just mentioned, but the point wasn't to ask on the specifics. It was me asking that poster if they had similar animosity towards Sony making that venture as they seem to have to Microsoft purchasing Zenimax, on the grounds that in both cases you are dealing with publishers and IP that have multiplatform status.

Because if Sony's funding Capcom for SFV development helped it get produced quicker (which it did; and to be perfectly honest, 2018 would've been the better time for it to come out because that's when the game first felt "complete" as a package), then the same can be said of Microsoft's purchase of Obsidian to help fund games they otherwise would not be able to make, and the same can be said for Zenimax. Hell, we had the group saying as such in the roundtable.

So, again, I have no problem that Sony helped fund SFV development and got console exclusivity as a result (or similarly what they did with Microsoft and Dead Rising 4). The issue is with people using the Zenimax purchase as a reinforcement for a false narrative that Microsoft has not cultivated any internal talent or grown studios post-acquisition, and the equally false narrative that Sony has always grown teams internally, hasn't purchased outside talent to make it 1P, didn't start the practice of timed exclusivity (tho on this one they may technically be correct because Nintendo actually started that with their strict licensing agreements on the Famicom/NES) or don't leverage the power of purchasing developers.

The only actual difference between the two (because yes, MS have mismanaged some studios mainly 343i but Sony also mismanaged studios like RAD and Evolution, Liverpool etc., and both have shut down studios as well) is that Sony hasn't purchased an actual publisher, but Microsoft purchased Zenimax mainly for their developers and technologies; them having a self-managed publishing arm is an added bonus.



You're basically making an argument on frivolous particularities as some implied ethical take. Back when Sony entered the industry no one else purchased exclusivity contracts for future game installments that already had prior entries on multiple competitor consoles, either, but it happened anyway. Why? Because Sony were competing in a free market where being able to leverage your resources (even if your opponents lack those resources) is favored as that is the benefit of capitalism.

I imagine there were plenty of Sega and Nintendo fans throwing similar temper tantrums at Sony back in the day on obscure message boards and chats for doing things otherwise 100% legal only they could really do due to their corporate structure and financial capacity, as we're seeing today from yourself and many others having temper tantrums over Microsoft playing to their own corporate structure and financial strengths in ways that are 100% legal.

Want to get mad at something over this? Get mad at capitalism and the legal system. But then you'd have to get equally mad at every corporate ever for the past 100 years, and that just exposes how dumb these temper tantrums are doesn't it?

The thing that makes no sense about Morrowind and Microsoft giving them funding is Ubisoft did the European distribution of Morrowind? Not saying that Microsoft didn't have a healthy great relationship with Bethesda. But saying Microsoft straight up collaborated and had a exclusive made just for them is not what happened. More or less they gave them funding to make the xbox version, and that I guess bled into their relationship on how fallout 3/oblivion turned out?

But Id like to see in their relationship where they full on funded a brand new IP from them? Let alone publish a large title? After oblivion bethesda was self publishing with Zenimax. In those instances I would agree bethesda and bungie were pretty good relationships. Thought bungie seemed to have had a falling out over making destiny. And i feel bungie's departure still stings till this day honestly as seen where 343 took the series.

I'm just saying Sony has a longer history on a developer level being more intimate with studio relationships over multiple projects. WHile there's only a handful from Microsoft that still are on-going, or have stayed intact relationship/communication wise.
 
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DeepEnigma

Gold Member
yoooo! what happened to her after EA?!?
She went to the studio Jade had for Stadia, but then Google pulled a Google and shit the bet on funding their studios (at the exact timeframe everyone called it here too), so hopefully she is going to bring Amy with her.
 
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v_iHuGi

Banned
Most likely a small indie team. don´t expect a ASS.CREEP game. Congrats.

Unlikely Sony would give her money for a small indie, this will certain be something in the lines of Death Standing.

She has always been invested in big AAA titles as well, this will be a big investment.

Also thread turned into comedy 🤡🤡🤡

Sony helping raising a company is great news, people trying to spin this is pure insanity and sure have mental problems.
 

Javthusiast

Banned
She is a producer not a director. Hopefully she hires talented people and now with help from sony we actually get a game released, without ea meddling or stadia going under, that will be good.

And that's all there is to it.
 
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martino

Member
Sony buying developers that already made games for their consoles is not the same as what MS is doing by purchasing publishers and developers that made games for everything.

Please stop likening the two.
MS is working and has relation with all third party dev....
They just fund less third party exclusive and do less time exclusive agreement with big one lately (maybe from their current position it's also harder, let's not forget that)
Deducing from that anything humanized is telling a tale.

so hopefully she is going to bring Amy with her.
uu9pmDP.gif
 
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martino

Member
Just remember this new studio doesn't even have a logo yet. Lower your expectations.
you probably missed the important information that the required one (for some) is assured to be on the plastic box

edit:/jk just in case
 
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SJRB

Gold Member
This lady's track record is fucking wild. She left Stadia just a few weeks ago.

Her sales pitches must be mindblowing.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
What I see here is that the majority of people don't know what the fuck they are talking about. Jade isn't a game designer, yet people here posting verbal diarrhea as if she's a director or something. She has become a specialist in forming teams from the ground up, that's all. She was involved in Battlefront 2, 2017. Stadia failed, yay.

She's respected within the industry for what she does, but hated in online forums for what she doesn't.
 
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AmuroChan

Member
Jade's biggest problem is that she's good looking which triggers a lot of people which do not believe a woman can be good looking AND capable in her job.

The bigger problem is that most people don't really even know what she does. They think she's a creative director of sort similar to a Kojima or Miyamoto, when that's not even remotely true. She works more on the business side in an executive producer/SVP type role.
 

assurdum

Banned
MS is working and has relation with all third party dev....
They just fund less third party exclusive and do less time exclusive agreement with big one lately (maybe from their current position it's also harder, let's not forget that)
Deducing from that anything humanized is telling a tale.


uu9pmDP.gif
I don't know how can be considered remotely comparable a company who helps to fund an independent one, to another who spent 7 billions of dollars as nothing, without to think what could happen in case they would fail miserably.
 
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Kokoloko85

Member
Im always happy about a new IP, but would also like some JRPG’s, 1st person shooters etc.

And Id rather Sony buy a studio they have worked with many times at this point in time rather than start/support a new one.

Id like them to support some more Japanese studios, they have enough western Magicians like Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, Santa Monica and Guerilla. Expand on those and get some Japanese ones

Again Im happy with this, but more Japanese studios and more buying studios instead of helping new western ones If that makes sense
 

Ellery

Member
New?
Original IP?
For Playstation?


That is what we LOVE to hear!

(Even though I don't have high expectations here, because I have heard her name a lot when it came to "new IPs" for whatever studio or company she was working for then and somehow it ended up not going well)
 
Jade is someone who is able to keep on building studios and having people want to come work with her. You dumbass forum posters coming in here to hate don't know anything. It's not her fault that EA and Google don't know how to foster creativity and manage teams. PlayStation on the other hand is pretty much the best at it. This is nothing but a good thing.
 

SoraNoKuni

Member
Great news, Sony is gathering talent and kick-starting new experiences.

She has a good track record if you don't count the latest fails, the companies she was associated have no idea on how to make a good game,(EA, Google, I really doubt it was her problem not making something out of it) if her views on creating a game is like back when she was at ubisoft and get the blessings of Sony(Technically and financially) we will have a great results.

Hope it's not forcefully woke though.

Also, I see people trying to be anti era by going completely to the other side, hold your horses, I thought neogaf was the platform that had subjective viewpoints not a "Haven" for hate.
 

yurinka

Member
Because if Sony's funding Capcom for SFV development helped it get produced quicker (which it did; and to be perfectly honest, 2018 would've been the better time for it to come out because that's when the game first felt "complete" as a package), then the same can be said of Microsoft's purchase of Obsidian to help fund games they otherwise would not be able to make, and the same can be said for Zenimax. Hell, we had the group saying as such in the roundtable.
You don't get it. Without Sony money Capcom would have released in 2018 SFV vanilla with the content it had when released in 2016. Not the content SFVAE had in 2018. With or without Sony the development time, budget and content of the game was going to be the same.

The difference was that thanks to the Sony money they were able to start its development 2 years before and to release it 2 years before. Capcom was going to delay 2 years the development of the game (so its release too) because didn't have enough cash to invest into that development.

Without Sony's money, SFV would have received the AE content it got in 2018 two years later, in 2020.

She is a producer not a director. Hopefully she hires talented people and now with help from sony we actually get a game released, without ea meddling or stadia going under, that will be good.

And that's all there is to it.
She started as programmer, then she became producter, then became studio boss and later vicepresident too.

There is no difference. Sony would be doing the same shit if they were in a position to do so. Jim Ryan would salivate at the thought of getting Starfield and Elder Scrolls as exclusives. Hell, he tried to buy out Starfield and failed. It must have really impressed him.
We know Sony was negotiating timed exclusivity of Starfield during months before MS purchased them, but we don't know if they signed it or not. We know that when MS talks about games with a PS deal they always avoid mentioning it's only for Deathloop and Ghostwire, and also avoid mentioning to say that all Zenimax games released after these two will be full console exclusives.

You're basically making an argument on frivolous particularities as some implied ethical take. Back when Sony entered the industry no one else purchased exclusivity contracts for future game installments that already had prior entries on multiple competitor consoles, either, but it happened anyway.
This is blatantly false. Nintendo and Sega were already on a moneyhat war stealing each other 3rd party exclusives.

Examples:
Street Fighter 1 (PCE), SF2 WW (SNES), SF2'CE (MD), SF2T (SNES), SSF2 (SNES+MD), SFA2 (SNES).
Final Fight (SNES), Final Fight CD (MD), Final Fight 2 and 3 (SNES).
Rocket Knight Adventures (MD), Sparkster (SNES), Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 (MD).
And same with Castlevania, Contra and more.
 
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BootsLoader

Banned
Taken from Wikipedia

Early life and career[edit]​

Jade Raymond was born 28 August 1975 in Montreal[2][3] 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.[4] 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.


dRYUeZ4.jpg
 
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J

JeremyEtcetera

Unconfirmed Member
I've heard this person's name for so many years. Yet I don't understand what she has done to deserve so much accolades and name recognition.

Her contributions don't seem to be as big as others on the projects she's been associated with. Yet for some reason she gets the limelight. Why?

CljktbRXEAEUKpJ.jpg


tumblr_inline_o9dx2klZCp1rl02iy_1280.png


Replace Inafune with Jade. She does good business.
 
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