Jade Raymond’s journey to EA, Star Wars games, and a new Montreal studio

Raymond: As a game developer, everyone has a lot of ideas that they want to see. It’s what I put in my letter when I was talking about joining Motive. That’s what I love about the industry. You talk to anyone in the industry — it doesn’t matter if they’re a concept artist, tester, programmer, audio lead — they’re in the industry because they love it.

I have a huge number of ideas that I’d love to pursue. There’s one specific thing that I think has the potential to become a big new IP. But I think you also have to find the right people to shape that idea together. I don’t believe in games where it’s like, “[X Person]’s [Game].” Great games come from the visions of a great team coming together. My first focus on the new IP is, yes, there’s something I want to do, but I want to get the right people on board and evolve that idea together.

Soderlund: We didn’t start with a game idea. We started with the notion that we had a mutual desire to build a new development team. We had a mutual desire to go into the action segment. Sometimes you can start from a game idea, but having been in this industry for so long, it doesn’t matter what game idea you have unless you have great people leading it.

You’ll find great developers all around the world, but what separates a lot of them is how well they’re led, how well the people running the thing understand the notion of a team and bringing out the best in people. That’s why we got together, more than a game idea or something.

I actually don’t really know. We haven’t spoken about what game she has in mind. We came from a Star Wars meeting, but I don’t really know what you’re thinking right now.

Above: One of the big employers in video games.

Image Credit: Electronic Arts

GamesBeat: That’s revealing.

Raymond: We haven’t spoken about it. It’s true. We have the same philosophy on that. Great teams are what make great games. Getting those people in and making sure that we shape the right idea — a great idea can become a terrible game if it’s badly executed.

GamesBeat: That speaks to a high level of trust there.

Soderlund: We have to. We’re building entertainment. Any entertainment industry is built on ideas and how well they’re executed. With that comes a lot of trust. You have to surround yourself with people you trust. We just came away from a four-hour meeting with the team here building Star Wars. The last thing we told them was, “There’s a lot of trust in what you guys are doing.”

All the meetings we have that involve product reviews, there’s a bunch of positive discussions, but then there’s always, what about this and this and this? That goes into the creative process. Before we left, I wanted to make sure they understood that there’s trust in what they’re doing. They’re here to make exceptional products. There’s a big belief in what they’re doing. Trust sounds naïve, but it’s such a big, important part of what we do and how we operate.

GamesBeat: Were you already planning to go to Montreal? Was that a big life change?

Raymond: We discussed different places. There are a lot of reasons why Montreal makes sense. It’s a very creative city. It has a lot of people who spend a lot of time indoors in the winter, and therefore know how to program. [laughs] There are a lot of great schools in the area. We discussed a few different options as far as places where it would make sense to start a studio.

Above: Star Wars Battlefront by EA

Image Credit: EA

GamesBeat: Ubisoft to EA, Toronto to Montreal, starting a new studio, and then managing Visceral. How many changes can you stack up here?

Raymond: I like change. People are always talking about disruption in the industry. “Oh my God, this year it’s VR.” That year it’s Facebook. That other year it’s social games. That’s a great thing about our industry. You have to embrace it. You have to keep yourself challenged, because there’s no such thing as resting on your laurels and repeating the last recipe you had.

GamesBeat: The IGDA had some unbelievable stat about how often game developers change jobs. Something like 80 percent had changed jobs in the last three years. I forget the exact time frame.

Raymond: I was at Ubisoft for 10 years, though. That’s a decent amount of time.

Soderlund: I’ve been here since 2006.

GamesBeat: How did you then figure out, okay, now I want to work with Amy? Is that why the Visceral end of things made sense? Or was it that you wanted to work with both Star Wars and Amy? What made managing that studio a logical part of your job?

Raymond: The great thing is, what I want to do and my dream job happen to fit very well with the strategy that Patrick’s been developing, and where EA wants to invest in the portfolio and make new opportunities. I’d be less excited to come to a company if what I want to do doesn’t fit into the company’s strategy. You feel like they’re trying to make room for you. You want to be doing something that adds value.

What’s great is, what I love doing and what I was hoping for in an opportunity, you couldn’t define it better than Star Wars and getting to build a studio and work on new IP. But also, the fact that those things really do fit into a strategy that EA has in place and has been developing for a while is what makes the opportunity make sense.

GamesBeat: You had thousands of resumes coming in?

Raymond: Yeah, we had a lot. In the first three days it was more than 600, just through the email list. We haven’t even posted any jobs yet. That’s just the CVs coming in. Really talented people. I’m quite impressed. We haven’t had a chance to go through them. That’s one thing about starting something from scratch. Right now there’s me looking through all those CVs. I’m kidding — there’s a full infrastructure at EA and a great resource in all the recruiters. But we haven’t had a chance to follow up on all those people.

GamesBeat: Does the studio have anything like a core team yet, or is it just you?

Raymond: We’re in the process of building that, but it’s all being built from scratch. It started with just me.

GamesBeat: And then you get to look at some kind of multi-year time frame to get this going?

Soderlund: The game is shipping next year. I hope?

Raymond: Yeah. We have to call the game elves to work on stuff. But yeah, it’s part of a longer-term strategy.

GamesBeat: Star Wars seems like a big responsibility.