Jade Raymond, the highly-visible producer of Ubisoft's multi-million selling Assassin's Creed, is heading up the publisher's recently-announced Ubisoft Toronto studio, the company said Monday.
Ubisoft said it would be founding a Toronto-based studio in a major announcement in July. The government of Ontario is investing CAD$263 million ($226 million) into the development studio over the next 10 years.
Raymond will lead day-to-day operations at Ubisoft Toronto, and will report to Yannis Mallat, CEO of both Ubisoft Montreal and Toronto.
Raymond had been with Ubisoft Montreal since 2004, where she had been a producer on Assassin's Creed. The third-person action game released to much anticipation in 2007, and has sold 8 million copies to date, according to Ubisoft.
She is currently executive producer on Assassin's Creed II and other projects, Ubisoft said. Raymond has also worked at Electronic Arts, IBM, and Sony Online.
Mallat said in a press statement, "I’m excited to have Jade managing our Toronto studio. With more than 12 years of experience in the video game industry, Jade’s knowledge and leadership as an industry veteran are major assets in building the Toronto studio and expanding Ubisoft’s presence in Canada."
In July, Ubisoft said the Toronto studio in particular will help bridges video games with other media, "including books, comics, short films, and other products."
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Ultimately her success or failure will come down to her leadership skills. If it were me, I'd hate to know that I got a job based not on my skills but on my looks... so lets hope she successfully leads the team to turning our great products.
If not... I have 28 years experience... :)
I talk all about this kinda stuff in my blog...
http://aboutmakinggames.blogspot.com/
Mac
I say we're quite unqualified to question the motives of Ubisoft here, unless we have worked with Jade, or know who else was considered for the position. And I haven't and I don't, so I'll shut up too. :)
--G
Rebecca, I don't know how you manage to do it, but you're always controversial ;)
And if her "personality" played a big role in landing her the job, then that's certainly beyond reproach as well. I can't claim first-hand knowledge, but presumably, having a great personality is a very beneficial -- and if not requisite -- personal asset to employ in her chosen capacity.
Congrats to J. Raymond for her ability and success, I say.
Strauss Zelnick was on the cover of Men's Health - did the peanut gallery question his leadership and effectiveness because of that?
She's an overachiever and from all reports a good person. Uninformed criticism reflects poorly on those throwing the stones.
Congrats to Jade.
Marc Merrill
President
Riot Games
There are plenty of people with 8m million title under their belt. Personally I think Ubisoft management is taking a risk. Sometimes it's good when people take risks.
Much success to Ubi Toronto, we need new studios opening to culminate the thousands of job losses we had these past months. Ubi is the only big name publisher that is adding staff, i hope this strategy pays up for them.
Reading about Jade's history and experience, I am sure it is her leadership ability and drive that got her to this position. However, I am also sure that randomness played its own role, as it does with almost everything business. So don't fret it you feel you should have the position instead :)
Leonard Mlodinow's book The Drunkards Walk does a great job of explaining this.
Do you know the lady? No? Then, lay off. You're just coming off as... dare I say it? Jealous. Relax.
You're name is attached to your posts, consider that before you criticize a peer in the industry for an accomplishment!
As to the naysaying, I agree with Andrew. It does nothing for your image to rile off about other's success.
Mac
I know a few countries in Europe hat had huge amounts of cash that they did not use to support the creation of new jobs in the arts, specifically computer arts/game studios.
Oh, and congratulations Jade!
As for the Jade issue. Frankly after buying and playing AC1, I wouldn't touch AC2 without some major changes to the gameplay and a guarantee that she didn't produce it. In fact didn't Ubisoft have to expressly tell gamers that she wasn;'t the producer on the project before they would even take AC2 seriously?
Removing my developer hat for a second and sticking my gamer hat on. I would be reluctant to buy anything that Jade has produced. I felt genuinely ripped of when I played AC. More so by the false praise the journalists gave the game than by Jade herself. It looked great but, at it's heart was a repetitive and shallow game that I couldn't even be bothered to finish. Most gamers came to the conclusion (again maybe not Jades fault directly) that journalists were writing praise for the game because they wanted to get into her pants rather than because they actually enjoyed the game itself.
If anything I suppose the journalists who attended the demo sessions with Jade are the ones who ruined her reputation amongst gamers. After all it was they who drew more attention to her looks than to the game or it's gameplay and ultimately started the whole "she's only there because she's hot" issue that has plagued her ever since.
Looking at the posts here today. I think she still has a long way to go to get away from the whole AC1 fiasco.
Of course, this is how it usually goes. During the hype, game reviews are unfairly harsh and being critical for no good reason. Then once hindsight sets in, those exact same reviews are taken to task for being hype-driven and overly glowing. Kind of funny how people who perceive bias all around them tend to be the most biased people of all.
As to the looks comments, if good looking producers assureed selling 8 million units GDC would be the best looking convention in the world. Unfortunatly it means nothing when making selections at checkout! Does anyone think she would get the role if the game sold say 900K? Probably not.
The game sold well, she was I assume deemed internally responsible and is given a chance to take on more responsibility. Seems like recongnition of a good job and loyalty to current employees in taking a chance at a time with experience people available. Congrats to ubisoft for promoting her. I hope you make the naysayers eat crow and this becomes a cultural example hard work pays off at ubisoft.
And, since I am such an idiot, who holds no position other then owning my own company (with me as sole employee)...when are game studios going to start paying attention to single player games having a freaking GOOD story, like Gun??? AC bored me to tears as my son played it. Gun kept my eyes mostly tear free. So screw Jade, and screw the industry trying to glam itself up. We're not making music, or movies, people. We don't need Brad Pitt headlining the latest release. We make games. Hype up the characters within them, they're the stars...not us. Or, in the case of the forgettable Assassin, the B-list non-stars. The Dolph Lundgrens, if you will. It would not surprise me if Robot Chicken made a reality tv show this slacker is featured in with his silly white bathrobe.
As far as Ms. F's credentials, I'm guessing that it's either a pseudonym or she's not really in the games industry. A claimed 16-year career with 35M shipped games (which sounds more like 10+ titles to me) would be hard for MobyGames to completely miss, IMO. Maybe she's been a tester or support staff all this time; don't know that those credits go into Moby.
I don't *think* it's possible for someone to work in any position - let alone any kind of production role - on 35 million SKUs worth of games and have the only google results for their name be their Gamasutra comments... I guess maybe as a tester/pa, but all the testers, pa's and technicians I've worked with are listed on MobyGames. Moby also detects hirings etc too - in my experience, it's pretty conclusive.
Still, I'm genuinely surprised by the amount of trolling itt. Given the general tone and orientation of Gamasutra, I'd kind of prefer comments to be moderated if that's possible. It's not like there's *that* many...
I've always liked the way you guys care about the integrity of the site in this regard.
Go Jade!
...and go Simon!
Congrats to Jade. Let's see what comes out of the new studio before we throw her under the bus.
According to posts by Rebecca Fernandes, she is a republican from California, has a soft spot for Eidos, worked on the Tomb Raider Games, has been in game development since at least the 1990's, and recommends that when looking for work list yourself on Linkedin.com.*
Sims, Tiger Woods, Tomb Raider games. I suppose that could be stretched to mean I worked on games that sold over 35 million. It is possible that game business experience could be stretched to 16 years with major publishers if as the first game on that list was published in 1997.
*I can't say with certainty that Rebecca Fernandes is AKA Rebecca Shearin, but the Linkedin connection raised my suspicion.
Perhaps Andrew H. will be offering an apology and Simon will be having an unusual discussion. The internet is a cold and unforgiving place. For all of us. Before careful what you write because any moron with an internet connection can play connect the dots their spare time.
@Andrew G., maybe? See: http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:fhNYhdmfUtsJ:www.mobygames.com/game/windows
/there/credits+There+Jade+Raymond+Rebecca+Shearin&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&clien
t=opera
And no, I won't be doing this on a regular basis.
As an aside and in the interest of transparency, I am not a games professional. I'm an Operations Director in an IT-based but nonetheless different industry.
A.C. may be overhyped (isn't that the point of selling entertainment products!). BUT...there is so much in that game that is done so well. The mechanics, the flow, the combat system, etc. All of it is top notch and comes together very, very well. If we played GTA III (as an example) now would we not have many criticisms not present when it initially came out? Again, I think A.C. was great; but more indicative of what's to come. In general part of the creative process of making successful games (as a non-games professional).
Don't hate on me simply because I'm not in the industry, but if my meddling comments warrant any interesting counterpoints...bring it! I buys lots o' the games (always new!).
> either the name is fake
...I would be right :)
I'm assuming that is indeed Ms Fernandes and that's what Simon was referring to in the above post re games industry experience. I'm not trying to be an asshole here - I just saw a cheap shot and a big claim from a name that I personally could not tie to anything at all; I think it's pretty reasonable to ask questions in that situation.
Anyway, nice dramabomb :p
In all seriousness though, as a Canadian I'm happy to see some Provinces take the gaming industry more seriously.
And to Jade I wish her good luck. I can't comment on whether or not she is qualified as while I am familiar with her resume, I am not familiar with the resumes of those who are in similar positions in other companies. Ultimately I think it doesn't matter what any of us thinks...Ubisoft knows their situation better than any of us and they know Jade better than most of us here. Her experience has been touted but there could be other factors as well such as her familiarity with the company culture and the fact that she's Canadian and is perhaps familiar with how things work in Ontario. My point being that there are many factors that this discussion in this comments section probably hasn't considered.
Ubisoft has made many great decisions during the past half-decade and I don't see them making any major mistakes any time soon. They know what they're doing.
"Gabe, I love you, but you need to watch that weight. We want you around making great games for the twenty years. Mr. Heart Attack level 41 is waiting around the next mountain pass."
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22378
You cannot be serious; those games were made by the same studio. The most recent PoP game was made by the same TEAM as AC afaik.