A Woman On A Mission
Jade Raymond was born on 28th August 1975 in Montreal, Canada. 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.
Raymond’s 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. Upon completion, Raymond’s experience with online gameplay and data management led to Electronic Arts where she worked as a producer on The Sims Online.
From 2003 to 2004, Raymond joined the G4 program ‘The Electric Playground’ as a part-time correspondent, working with Victor Lucas, Tommy Tallarico and Julie Stoffer, gaining TV exposure which would prove both useful and detrimental in her next big career move.
The Face Of Ubisoft
In 2004, Raymond began working for Ubisoft Montreal, where she led the creation of the first Assassin’s Creed game as a producer. As was trending at the time, game producers and lead designers would also act as public relations figureheads, routinely announcing updates on larger game developments and conducting interviews with gaming journalists.
Media coverage would become focused on interviews with head developers who were compared to TV personalities, with figures such as Peter Molyneux (Lionhead), Todd Howard (Bethesda) and Hideo Kojima (Konami) regularly appearing in PR events. Raymond’s intellect, bubbly personality, youthful appearance and dazzling smile would quickly make her the new face of Ubisoft and Assassin’s Creed.
A Campaign of Pain
Raymond’s popularity with both male and female gamers made her something of a hit for Ubisoft. Sadly, this rise to relative stardom brought with it an unflattering level of jealousy and contempt from members of the internet ‘troll’ community which saw Raymond become the target of a disorganised online hate campaign.
Online forums would become littered with slanderous comments which implied that Raymond only acquired her position due to her attractiveness, degrading her position to little more than a Ubisoft “booth babe”. Others would suggest that Raymond was flirting with fans and reviewers in order to soften critique of flaws in Assassin’s Creed, driving sales and elevating review scores.
While the accusations made against Raymond were untrue, they were no less hurtful. The most featured site and arguably the source of the campaign was comedic website and commentary blog Something Awful, who featured a notorious web-comic featuring Raymond’s likeness wearing a bikini and offering sexual favours in exchange for purchasing Assassin’s Creed.
Ubisoft vs Something Awful
In an effort to stop the campaign against Raymond at its alleged source, Ubisoft’s legal team sent a cease-and-desist letter to the webmaster of SomethingAwful.com via email and express mail.
“Ubisoft has recently learned that the extremely offensive pornographic image (the “Image”) accessible at [WaffleImages.com] is being used on your website located at http://www.somethingawful.com [and/or] http://forums.somethingawful.com…”
“…the Image’s blatant, vile, and unauthorized misappropriation of Ms. Raymond’s name and likeness, and your conduct in using the Image on your Site, have caused immeasurable harm to Ms. Raymond’s reputation and career, and constitute an egregious infringement of Ms. Raymond’s personal rights and privacy rights…”
“Ubisoft hereby demands that you immediately: (1) permanently remove the Image from your Site, databases and servers and prevent any further uploading or display thereof; (2) permanently cease and desist all unauthorized use and hosting of images using the ASSASSIN’S CREED mark and Ms. Raymond’s name and/or likeness; (3) provide us with the name and contact information of the person who originally created and/or posted the Image; and (4) complete, execute, and return to me the enclosed Declaration by November 16, 2007 to confirm that you are complying with Ubisoft’s demand.”
Here There Be Monsters
Something Awful’s founder and webmaster, Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka personally responded to the threat of legal action and penned an email to Ubisoft’s legal team. The tone and content of the email was a mockery of Ubisoft’s demands containing nonsensical gibberish and a sarcastic overuse of legal jargon before ending with a homophobic slur made against Ubisoft’s legal team.
Ubisoft prepared to proceed with legal action following Kyanka’s mockery, however, surprisingly, Kyanka’s response was revealed to be a PR stunt done in his usual style of black comedy. Kyanka pulled the comic from Something Awful and even chastised the forum’s contributors, known amongst fellow members as “Goons”, for maintaining the distasteful content. Sadly, the web-comic had already leaked to other media outlets and still circles the likes of Twitter (X), 4chan and Reddit to this day.
Kyanka’s behaviour would repeatedly come under fire for years after the event. On October 9th, 2020, following a backlash from the community in response to allegations that Kyanka was a domestic abuser, Kyanka sold Something Awful to his moderator, Jeffrey of YOSPOS, who subsequently banned Kyanka from the site. Following the divorce ruling after the separation from his second wife, Kyanka died by suicide on November 9th, 2021.
Into The Shadows
Following the success of Assassin’s Creed, Raymond went on to become executive producer on Assassin’s Creed II (2009) and Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines (2009). After the previous reception, Raymond took a short break from on-camera interviews, with some sources claiming she felt “unsafe”. Later, Raymond made fewer on-camera appearances promoting the Assassin’s Creed franchise, gradually phasing them out.
Seeking a fresh start, Raymond moved to Toronto in January 2010 to help build Ubisoft Toronto, in the role of managing director. Once established, she returned to Ubisoft Montreal, taking on the role of executive producer of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist (2013) and triple-A sequels and new IPs which included Watch Dogs (2014), Assassin’s Creed Unity (2014), Far Cry 4 (2014) and The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot (2015). In October 2014, Raymond left Ubisoft after ten years.
Star Wars And Starlight
In July 2015, Raymond announced that she had joined Electronic Arts and formed Motive Studio, based in Montreal. She was also to be in charge of Visceral Games, located in California, where she worked on games in the Star Wars franchise. Raymond’s title was SVP Group General Manager when Star Wars: Battlefront II released in 2017. Raymond would then work alongside games designer and writer Amy Hennig on Star Wars ‘Project Ragtag’, however repeated changes to the script and design resulted in the project being cancelled.
Raymond joined the Board of Directors of WIFTI, an organisation dedicated to the advancement of women across film, television and screen-based industries. In January 2018, Raymond was named on the board of directors for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. In July 2018, she was recognised for “her trailblazing endeavours across her 20-year career” with the Develop Vanguard Award.
In October 2018, she received the Pioneer Award from the Fun & Serious Game Festival, recognising her “contributions to the industry as a producer of games that are considered a turning point in the industry”. Raymond was one of few video game executives named in the Variety 2018 and 2019 list of 500 most influential business leaders shaping the global entertainment industry.
Top Secret
In October 2018, Raymond left Motive Studio, alluding to a “top secret project”. In March 2019, Raymond announced that she had joined Google as a vice president. During the 2019 Game Developers Conference, Google affirmed that she would be heading Google’s Studios’ Stadia Games and Entertainment, to create exclusive content for Google’s Stadia streaming service.
Ultimately, Stadia struggled to find its footing in the gaming market. In February 2021, Raymond announced her departure from Stadia Games and Entertainment, as well as Google, concurrent with Google’s announcement of the wind down for their in-house Stadia Games and Entertainment development studio.
Homeward Bound
Keen to return to traditional game development, Raymond founded Haven Studios in March 2021, a new independent development studio, with Sony Interactive Entertainment investing in the studio to create a new original IP for PlayStation. Haven Studios is home to former employees of Google’s Stadia initiative as well as Ubisoft.
In July 2022, Sony Interactive Entertainment acquired Haven Studios, making them a first-party developer for PlayStation Studios. Haven’s debut title is to be Fairgames, a competitive heist game for PlayStation 5 and PC. In addition to its work as a primary developer, Haven also provides technical support for other live-service PlayStation titles.
