Jade Raymond Leaving Ubisoft

Back to Electric Playground?

Why do people just assume she did nothing or that producers don't contribute creatively? Come on.

if her ubi portfolio is any indication

where she lands and what she does will be AWESOME!!! (hopefully!!!)

Is it ok that I still pronounce her name, "Yade"?

Haha. This was my exact reaction when I read the article.

Heeeey, somebody else remembers she was on that! I used to love that show when I was a kid (and Reviews on the Run) so it was super cool when Assassins Creed was coming out and I got to see that she was involved with games even more. She seems like a cool down to earth lady, hope she winds up somewhere good.

I guess because people don't actually know how games are made (especially in massive, secretive companies) but base their strong statements on ignorance anyways? :(

There is a real tendency in online culture to promote the "in the trenches" people and revile the "higher-ups". Often people just want to destroy anyone who isn't a hard coder like a Carmack. "Idea people" are bottom of the barrel in this industry, if you ask the internet.

I've never loved the AC series but i always appreciated it for the new game ideas it started people thinking about. She may not have worked on Shadow of Mordor but that game would not be as good as it is if not for AC so best of luck to you Jade Raymond.

Also, as @sear just explained above, "Producer" is an inherently nebulous term.

In my experience (in filmmaking, not games, but it's pretty similar), "producer" is the general term given to people who just work on more than one aspect of getting a project made, rather than one who has a singular focus. So though their everyday duties might be something like coordinating between multiple groups to ensure specific goals are being met, they may be just as relied on to do some of the work in those groups as well.

I have to imagine that was completely intentional. Yeah, she was the face of Assassin's Creed when the series first launched and the internet acted as it (still) does whenever a woman is involved in video games: by being disgusting. So the fact that she disappeared from the public eye was no surprise.

Totally. She should be like an international jewel thief, or something. Continually eluding her elderly nemesis at the Scotland Yard.

Why is everyone demoting her to producer status? She has done a lot of producing and executive producing, but when she left she was Managing Director of Ubisoft Toronto.

Developer Biography

Jade has produced, designed and programmed games for Electronic Arts, IBM and Sony Online. In 2007, she produced Assassin's Creed at Ubisoft's Montreal Studio (after having joined the studio in 2004) and interviewing others in the gaming industry for a TV show called Electric Playground in her spare time.

In September 2009 it was announced she would head up Ubisoft's new Toronto studio in Canada, overseeing day-to-day operations. At that time she was producing Assassin's Creed II.

Jade Raymond, Moby Games credits.

"Historically-accurate models of Jerusalem and Damascus....Leap of Faith into a bale of hay....break line of sight....Wailing Wall...." I'll always associate Jade Raymond with these soundbites circa 2007.

*Lonely Soul playing in the background*

It's not a "demotion", just what she's best known for. It's a bit like people still referring to Ed Boon as one of the creators of Mortal Kombat, even though he's directing the newest game. Director is technically a "better" title, but his personal touch was more directly felt in the original few games.

@murdoc_:

She was never a developer, she never "made" a video game. Just to get the facts right, she's a business women, not a developer.

@ultimaxe:

...She never claimed to be on the creative side of the game's development and clearly stated that she was just the producer (not to belittle her contributions)...

Facts:

Jade has produced, designed and programmed games for Electronic Arts, IBM and Sony Online. In 2007, she producedAssassin's Creed at Ubisoft's Montreal Studio (after having joined the studio in 2004) and interviewing others in the gaming industry for a TV show called Electric Playground in her spare time.

In September 2009 it was announced she would head up Ubisoft's new Toronto studio in Canada, overseeing day-to-day operations. At that time she was producing Assassin's Creed II.

Jade Raymond Facts

Ubisoft Toronto's Employee#1 gets a Studio Tour from Managing Director...

I really hope this happens.

Yep - absolutely. We don't have a concept of "producer" at my work (database software) but we have Planners. They double as analysts (what does the customer want? what do they need?) and planners (basically coordinating different departmental needs, questions, relations).

To say that making a system without a Planner would be impossible is deadly obvious, but more importantly you need an awesome Planner to make an awesome system. Quite likely, Producers in games are similar.

Can't blame her. Horrible time to be a woman in this piss-shit industry. I hate games.

Can hardly blame her. There is something about AAA games made by Ubisoft nowadays that makes seem sort of lifeless and boring. Homogenized I think is the perfect word to describe them.

Best of luck to her. Hope she makes something cool.

Located directly under the bird droppings on the ledge.

pretty sure this has nothing to do with her gender

She gets the producer status mainly from her public appearances related to promoting Assassins Creed. She went behind the scenes from then on in so you pick a role she was probably more visible for so the audience remembers who she is.

Newspapers do it all the time. Anyway, best of luck to her. Just don't encourage me to spend £40 on Assassins Creed again. That game was a lemon but it demoed so well.

I imagine especially so at a place like ubisoft where so much of the work on their big titles is distributed so widely. Those credits are scary. Someone needs to be really on point to make sure the stuff coming in from all those satellite studios is what it needs to be and that the people in charge of bolting all the stuff together to make the final product have what they need at the time they need it to make the game go.

Of course, I have zero insight into the production process at ubisoft, so I'm just talking out of my ass here, but production coordinator on something like an AC game seems like my worst nightmare. It also really makes me wonder about what kind of project planning and implementation software they're using.

I've never worked in an operation nearly the scale of Ubisoft but there must be a veritable fleet of project and departmental managers. Someone like Jade Raymond would be super high-level (not pay-scale wise but game concept wise) and probably working with departmental leads and business-side folk. But undoubtedly there are many, many people involved in the raw timetabling/budget organization.

Terrifying. Unbelievably scary, sprawling, nightmarish stuff for sure.

Wasn't that game cancelled as well?

Man, I still remember seeing her on Electric Playground when I was younger. Hope she finds what she's looking for!

Yup... It's just kinda sad... Damn it, Coonce!

Best of luck! Whatever her role as a producer entailed - as discussed it can be a nebulous term at times - she still did great work on one of the most prominent series in the industry, and I'm excited to see what she works on next.

@patrickklepek what's with the sneer quotes in the headline?

I'm sort of baffled by some of the responses to this article.

I doubt they're meant maliciously. When you want to directly quote someone, you put their words in quotation marks. It's that simple.

Good luck Jade. Hope leaving Ubi works out for you.

Good luck to her in the future, although her impressive resume hopefully means she doesn't have to rely too much on it!

Yeah. it was called 1666. He said it was going to be the next AC, so Ubi bought it and cancelled it. It was also probably revenge for hiring away a lot of their people.

Hmm, I thought she left to do her own thing a while ago but I guess not. Good luck to her. Given her experience managing bigger teams, she has some options to work at that same level elsewhere or change it up and work with a smaller team. I'm curious what someone in her position will choose.

Since she is based in Canada...maybe another Canadian-based joint?

I have never heard of this person before, so Turboman saying she disappeared from public eye since the first AC sounds about right to me. Has she been on any GB stuff before?

Here's hoping she comes back with something refreshing - hopefully working on something smaller scale. Interested to see where she goes next.

She was the face of Assassin's Creed for me back in the day. Hope she stays in the games industry!

The Assassin's Creed series and Splinter Cell Blacklist are some of my favorite games. Thank you Jade for helping them become some of the best games around.

Good luck to her! I actually really enjoyed AC1 just because I saw the potential in it, I guess that's why I'm also one of the Destiny suckers. :p

This article reminded me that, "that" comic still exists!

I wish her the best! Assassin's Creed 1 was a real innovation in game engine design, even if there was just 3 different things to do in it.

@alwaysbebombing: I obviously can't speak for Raymond, but if I were in her shoes, no matter how strong the company, the embarassing performance that Ubi's PR department has been putting on lately would make me want to jump ship as soon as I could.

She's pretty pretty! GLHF on her future endeavors