The past year has been a rocky one for Electronic Arts, between fallout from the Star Wars: Battlefront II loot crate debacle and the abrupt closing of Visceral Games and departure of Uncharted writer Amy Hennig. But now another key member of the team has departed, leaving some industry folks wondering just what happened.
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The publisher has announced that Jade Raymond, who previously worked on Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs before joining EA Motive, has departed after three years of service with the company.
Though the company hasn’t released any projects on its own, it’s been heavily involved in EA’s Star Wars franchise over that time frame. It provided a bit of effort in Star Wars: Battlefront II with its single player narrative; and was also set to contribute to Visceral and Amy Hennig’s Star Wars project before it was abruptly switched over to another studio.
Raymond didn’t give a reason for leaving the studio, but some suggest that this could be fallout tied in with last year’s Battlefront II controversy, as that affected the game’s success as a whole, despite the publisher’s attempt to bounce back with the announcement of new, free downloadable content for it. That’s not confirmed tho.
“In her time with us, Jade helped to build great teams, and our projects underway at Motive and other studios continue unchanged,” the publisher said in a statement provided to VentureBeat. “We’re appreciative of all her efforts, and we wish Jade all the best as she moves on to her next adventure.”
Meanwhile, Samantha Ryan, who runs EA’s mobile division, along with Maxis (The Sims) and BioWare (Anthem), will keep an eye on Motive for the time being.
This leaves some interesting speculation as to EA’s future with the Star Wars brand, as well as what Raymond ends up doing next. More than likely, she may open her own studio, though she hasn’t said anything on what her future plans are yet. We certainly wish her the best of luck.
If you want to see her work from EA Motive, you can check out Star Wars: Battlefront II now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Origin PC.
