It looks like Jade Raymond and her independent Haven Studios are now officially part of PlayStation Studios. What does that mean for her and her studio? Well, let’s find out, shall we?

Independent No Longer?

PlayStation Studios x Haven Studios merger image.
The increasingly large family, but at least there is a silver lining to this.

PlayStation Blog has just announced that PlayStation Studios has just acquired Haven Studios. As of March 21, 2022; this previously independent video game developer formed by Jade Raymond (The Sims Online, Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs) has now officially joined up with PlayStation. Complete with a statement from Raymond herself, no less. Here are the last 3 paragraphs that summarize the whole statement:

“Today, the Haven team begins a new phase of our journey, as part of the PlayStation Studios family. Working with Hermen, Connie Booth and the team at PlayStation over the past year has been a career highlight. SIE is a supportive partner that truly understands the creative process and what it takes to make a blockbuster AAA game. They have empowered and encouraged us to bring our bold vision to life and make our dreams come true and we could not be more thrilled about this opportunity to strengthen our partnership.

As a SIE first-party studio, we will have the opportunity to collaborate with some of the world’s most renowned development teams, including studios like Guerrilla, Naughty Dog, Media Molecule, and Insomniac Games, the creators of games that have inspired us as players and developers for years. We’re excited to learn from these world-class studios, as well as the exceptional central creative, technology and marketing teams whose expertise will enable us to deliver even better games to players.

To our Haven team – a huge thank you. It’s been one of the most rewarding years of my career – and to the players out there, we can’t wait to share more. We’re just at the beginning of what is sure to be a wondrous adventure that will span generations.

Jade Raymond, CEO and Founder, Haven Studios

Haven Studios: So What’s Next?

"Assassin's Creed II" box art.
Maybe a multiplayer Assassin’s Creed-like game?

Funnily enough, Jade Raymond gives us an idea of what she and Haven Studios plan on working on next in her previous statement. It goes as follows:

“Our first new IP for PlayStation is on track to deliver a AAA multiplayer experience with a vision to build a systemic and evolving world focused on freedom, thrill, and playfulness that will keep players entertained and engaged for years.”

As you can see, this game is still in the early planning stages. Hence, the vagueness of that idea. However, the keywords to take away here are “AAA multiplayer experience”. That’s right: this game is going to be a big-budget AAA multiplayer game. The “freedom” part seems to suggest an open-world multiplayer game. Indeed, it’s borne out by the Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs games, which are all open-world games. However, that’s speculation for now. Take it with a grain of salt until we hear anything official.

What we can say for certain though is that it won’t be another Assassin’s Creed or Watch Dogs game. Ubisoft already owns the rights to those titles. It’d cost a fortune to license them, even assuming that Ubisoft is willing to do it in the first place. We’ll just have to see what Jade Raymond and Haven Studios comes up with next then with PlayStation money behind them.

Source: PlayStation Blog