In surprising news, Sony has confirmed that Jade Raymond, founder of first-party PlayStation studio Haven, has apparently left the company. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, the studios upcoming title Fairgames is reported to have tested poorly just weeks before Raymond left.
Word of Raymond’s departure was broken by the prince of gaming journalism, Mr. Jason Schreier of Bloomberg. Sony issued a statement shortly after confirming the situation.
“Jade Raymond has been an incredible partner and visionary force in founding Haven Studios,” PlayStation said. “We are deeply grateful for her leadership and contributions, and we wish her all the best in her next chapter.”
Marie-Eve Danis and Pierre-François Sapinski have been named as Haven’s new co-heads moving forward.
Haven was founded in 2021 after Raymond left Google Stadia. Sony was revealed to be funding the team’s first project, which was later revealed in 2023 to be a new live-service game titled Fairgames. Sony then bought Haven in 2022 for an undisclosed price.
In his article, Jason notes that while no specific reason was given for Raymond’s exit, Fairgames (which is apparently dropping the $ at the end of its name) went through a round of external testing a few weeks ago. According to Jason, some people with knowledge of the situation told him that some developers were “concerned with how the game was received and its progress”.
It’s unclear whether this external test has anything to do with Raymond’s decision to leave Haven and whether it was actually her decision and not a mandate from Sony directly.
Fairgames was reportedly going to launch this year, but the Bloomberg article claims it has been pushed back until next Spring.
Raymond is one of the industry’s most recognisable names, rising to prominence with her producer role on the original Assassin’s Creed and then working on multiple other entries in the series. Other credits include Managing Director on Far Cry 4, working on Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and her stint at Stadia. Arguably, though, Raymond hasn’t worked on anything big or truly exciting in a long time. Fairgames was seemingly going to be her big return, which is why it’s surprising that she has stepped away from the company she helped create with five other people.
So let’s speculate a little. It could be that under Sony’s purview, Fairgames is shaping up differently than Raymond had envisioned. While she was CEO, Sony is the one with the money and who ultimately has full say on how Fairgames is made. This is the theory that makes the most sense to me, personally, as it’s highly unusual to see a CEO step away from a company they founded and before their first project even gets released.
It could also be due to Sony’s push toward live-service and subsequent failures. Sony would be crazy not to at least attempt to enter the live-service space, and has found success with Helldivers 2, but Concord was a massive disaster, and they’ve already cancelled most of their other live-service projects. Indeed, Fairgames is one of the few remaining.