Jade Raymond — producer of Watch Dogs, recent Splinter Cell games and, of course, the Assassin’s Creed series — has left Ubisoft.
Raymond started at the bottom in the early 2000s, working as a programmer on Jeopardy games for Sony Online Entertainment, before moving on to become producer/creative director of The Sims Online for EA and eventually a hit game generating producer at Ubisoft. Over the past seven years-or-so Jade Raymond has been the most prominent, outspoken and inspiring female figure in the video game industry.
Raymond hasn’t stated why she’s chosen to leave Ubisoft, but it sounds like she’s going to continue working in the field…
“This is one of the hardest decisions of my career, but the Toronto studio is strong and on a solid path. I’m confident that now is a good time for me to transition leadership of the studio to Alex and to pursue my other ambitions and new opportunities. Stay tuned for more on what’s next for me, but for now, I’d like to thank Ubisoft for its partnership through the years, and I wish them the very best in all their next endeavors.”
Alexandre Parizeau will replace Raymond as head of Ubisoft’s Toronto studio.
Raymond’s departure comes at a tricky time for Ubisoft, as the company continues to face criticism for the lack of female representation in their current slate of games (or, more accurately, their unconvincing excuses for the lack of representation). We’ll probably never know whether Ubisoft’s woman problems are partly to blame for Raymond leaving he company, but it certainly doesn’t feel entirely coincidental. Hopefully whatever company Raymond ends up at isn’t quite as dedicated to triple-A blandness above all else.
Via Gamespot