Former Ubisoft Toronto big cheese and Assassin’s Creed co-creator has now joined Electronic Arts. She is heading up their new Motive studio in Montreal, Canada. Raymond will be keeping her eye on Visceral and BioWare.
Motive will be ”in close quarters” with the upcoming Mass Effect: Andromeda but their first project is working with Visceral Games on their unannounced Star Wars title from Amy Hennig.
”I’m happy to announce that I’m joining Electronic Arts and opening Motive, a new development studio in my home town of Montreal, Canada,” blogged Raymond on the official EA website.
”I cannot think of a more exciting time to be a part of EA than right now. Yanick Roy and the BioWare Montreal team are doing some new and exciting things with Mass Effect: Andromeda and it’s clear that there is already so much talent to collaborate with on site.”
BioWare only recently unveiled the new name for the next Mass Effect, which does not continue the Commander Shephard story arc. It’s believed we’re sent off into uncharted territory to establish a human presence in the event the war with the Reapers doesn’t go so well.
”And as a player of the latest Battlefield and Dragon Age games, I have experienced what the Frostbite engine can do; and I can’t wait to get my hands on it and see what a new team can create!” she continued.
”Motive will be a creative-driven team, incubating entirely new IP and taking on some amazing projects. The first one is going to be really exciting - we’re going to work on Amy Hennig’s Star Wars game!
“In addition to building the new Motive Studio in Montreal, I will also oversee the Visceral studio in California. I’m a huge fan of the games that have come out of Visceral and I feel honoured to be working with such a talented team led by studio GM Scott Probst. I’ve also known Amy for years and have admired her work on the Uncharted games!
“I’m thrilled that the first big project that we will work on in Montreal will have Amy as creative director. An opportunity to work with her and the Visceral team, and to play in the Star Wars universe, is once-in-a-lifetime stuff.”
The super-secret Star Wars project at Visceral is said to be a bit like Star Wars 1313, which was cancelled. If this is true then the focus is likely on the bounty hunter profession, and not the Force-wielding population of the galaxy.
Mass Effect: Andromeda releases on PC in Holiday 2016.
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