Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Sony is apparently looking to release more than 25 PlayStation 5 games under its PlayStation Studios brand. And “nearly half” of them will
not be sequels or spinoffs, according to
Wired’s interview with PlayStation Studio lead (and former Guerrilla Games managing director) Hermen Hulst.
That could theoretically be a
lot more games than the four first-party Sony titles we already know about:
Horizon Forbidden West (2021)
God of War: Ragnarok (2021)
Gran Turismo 7 (2022)
Twenty-one additional games could be a huge shot in the arm for the PS5, especially considering how slowly exclusives are trickling out;
Sony also may not be completely on the hook for producing all of the games that are unaccounted for, though. The PlayStation Studios branding is a bit murky. When it was first announced, Eric Lempel, the head of global marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment, told
Jade Raymond's Haven Studios acquires six developers from Google Stadia as she intends to bring in "talented game developers I have worked with for years".
Published on 6 May, 2021
Back in March, Assassin s Creed co-creator Jade Raymond started up Haven Studios, an independent Canadian developer with plans to make a new PlayStation game. She had previously been the head of Stadia Games and Entertainment, but left after Google started shutting down its development studios earlier this year. Now it seems Raymond has tempted some other Google alums over for her new project, who also all happen to be former Ubisoft developers too.
The list of names heading to Haven from Stadia was caught by Cyberia on ResetEra (thanks, Gamasutra), and includes Corey May (who was notably a narrative director on the Assassin s Creed series) and Sebastien Puel (former Assassin s Creed producer, now Haven co-founder). User researcher Jonathan Dankoff, programmer Pierre-Marc Bérubé, and concept artists Erwann Le Rouzic and Francis Denoncourt are joining them.
A further six members of staff have left Google Stadia for new roles at Haven Studios, the venture founded by former Stadia VP Jade Raymond.
As spotted by a poster on Resetera, staff across multiple disciplines have taken positions at the Montreal-based studio between April and May.
Among the hires is Corey May, former head of creative services and publishing at Google Stadia, and former Stadia general manager Sebastien Puel, who is also a co-founder of Haven Studios.
Raymond left Google Stadia back in February to form Haven Studios, shortly after Google closed its internal development studios. The cloud-based streaming platform is still in operation, but with a focus on third-party games.
Including ex-Assassin s Creed narrative director. Updated on 5 May 2021
The list notably includes Corey May, who like Raymond once helped define the early Assassin s Creed series. May served as scriptwriter, lead writer and then narrative director on numerous Assassin s Creed games over the course of a 12-year span, and worked with Raymond on the series first couple of entries.
At Stadia, May served as its head of creative services. He s joined at Haven by former Stadia general manager Sebastien Puel - another high profile hire.
At least four more former Stadia team members have also made the leap to Haven, as dug up by ResetEra user Cyberia (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz), including artists, engineers and user experience staff.