Jade Raymond Discusses Quitting Ubisoft, Genre Stagnation, AAA Games, More

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Longtime Ubisoft producer Jade Raymond, who quit the company in October 2014 after a decade producing games in the Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell series, opens up in a new interview about why she left, what she hopes to do in the future, and more.
"I joined the game industry because I liked change," Raymond told GamesIndustry International. "I definitely had a great time at Ubisoft and a lot of great opportunities to evolve. But I was feeling in my comfort zone, and I like to push myself out of that. I'd been there for 10 years, which is a pretty good chunk of time, so it felt like it was time to give myself a kick in the pants."

"I'm still really excited about AAA games, and I think there's still a lot of money to be made and a lot of interesting things to do" -- Raymond

When she announced last year that she would be leaving her post as managing director at Ubisoft Toronto, Raymond called it the "one of the hardest decisions of my career." 15-year industry veteran Alexandre Parizeau has since stepped in to fill the role.
So what is Raymond up to next? She's not ready to talk specifics just yet, but she did explain that she still has an affinity for AAA game development.
"I'm still really excited about AAA games, and I think there's still a lot of money to be made and a lot of interesting things to do," Raymond said. "There are a lot of ways to innovate that we haven't touched on yet. And with the kind of budgets put behind AAA games, there's an opportunity to actually do that and take a few more chances. For me personally, there are a lot of things I'd still love to do in AAA games."
Raymond also says in the interview that well-established genres, such as fighting games, still have loads of room for further innovation.
"I think there are a lot of different opportunities in action games that haven't been explored," she said. "For example, the fighting game has been pretty narrowly defined and has stayed relatively stagnant for the last few years. Even though the tech keeps on getting better and the consoles keep getting better, you're still sort of stuck in this arena, and it's the same thing with slightly better graphics. To me, there are so many opportunities to push that genre in new directions and integrate that kind of gameplay into a broader experience. And that's just one example."
The full interview is a fascinating read. It touches on further subjects such virtual reality, player expectations, and more. You can read the full chat here.
What do you make of Raymond's comments? Let us know in the comments below!


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