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[BennyBlanco]

Along with five co-founders and about 20 ex-Google employees, she launched Haven Entertainment Studios, a Montreal, Canada-based outfit whose first game is an original IP funded by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
According to a new studio profile by Le Devoir, Haven has tripled in size since its March 2021 announcement and is continuing to staff up for its debut game, which the article describes as “a persistent, scalable online environment” for PS5 and PC.

The title, which is seemingly one of 10 live service games Sony plans to launch by 2026, will reportedly benefit from a soon to be confirmed collaboration with PS5 architect Cerny.

“Our ambition will be to push the technical capabilities of the console further,” said Raymond.

Fellow Haven co-founder Paola Jouyaux added: “We will have the opportunity to work with people at Sony who are among the best in the world at what they do. This will allow us to create games of the highest quality.”

In a GamesIndustry.biz interview last year, Raymond said Haven’s ambition was to create a new IP that serves as a “social platform” for players, and one that is “designed to be owned by the fans”.

Jade Raymond’s studio is making a ‘persistent, scalable online game’ for PS5 and PC | VGC

Haven will reportedly collaborate with PS5 lead system architect Mark Cerny on its debut game…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[nowhat]

Knack Online confirmed.

 

[Represent.]

count me out. i only care for single player games. i like to buy a game, play it, move on. I dont give a shit about all these "services". Jesus, why must everything be a service. Just serve me a great game.

 

[RoadHazard]

Knack as a Service, count me in.

(Not really.)

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Sony booking those new IPs. If one of these games succeeds, those will be their future acquisition targets for sure.

We'll see what happens here. Jade is a bit hit ir miss

 

[CGiRanger]

count me out. i only care for single player games. i like to buy a game, play it, move on. I dont give a shit about all these "services". Jesus, why must everything be a service. Just serve me a great game.

Sadly the Service games are what make money now.

The words "Social Platform" though give off a massive Red Flag of what the goal is here. Because that doesn't sound like making a fun game, which should always be the core goal.

 

[Chris_Rivera]

So what technical abilities can be pushed on PS5, that can transfer over to the PC version?

 

[TheGodfather07]

Anyone else getting annoyed as shit about all this live service talk from Sony? feels like sony are Dumping our old asses and chasing after the fresh younger generation. I don't care or have any interest in their "10 live service games by 2026". Take 5 off that number and turn them into single players RPG's instead.

 

[KingGhidorah]

PlayStation will be mostly GAAS games in a couple of years

 

[Yoboman]

Anyone else getting annoyed as shit about all this live service talk from Sony? feels like sony are Dumping our old asses and chasing after the fresh younger generation. I don't care or have any interest in their "10 live service games by 2026". Take 5 off that number and turn them into single players RPG's instead.

No because they are hiring and working with new developers on it, the stable of devs at Playstation Studios still has a main focus on great singleplayer games

 

[lastmessiah]

Inclusive and caring social platform lol, can’t wait to see how this turns out.

 

[IntentionalPun]

I find it rather odd the original article seems to be assuming she meant Cerny w/o her saying it.

It's a PS exclusive from a third party.. they all get support from XDev don't they? But why would Cerny specifically be involved?

 

[TheGodfather07]

No because they are hiring and working with new developers on it, the stable of devs at Playstation Studios still has a main focus on great singleplayer games

How do we know this though? it looks like sony are shifting their focus to live service games. This is already a massive change because sony have always been more single player focused. That's why they got bungie too. To help them with the service games.

 

[Hobbygaming]

count me out. i only care for single player games. i like to buy a game, play it, move on. I dont give a shit about all these "services". Jesus, why must everything be a service. Just serve me a great game.

This, I'm currently playing Sifu and I could play these SP experiences for the rest of my life and be very satisfied

 

[BennyBlanco]

I find it rather odd the original article seems to be assuming she meant Cerny w/o her saying it.

It's a PS exclusive from a third party.. they all get support from XDev don't they? But why would Cerny specifically be involved?

Sony mise sur Montréal pour déjouer Microsoft

Avec Haven Studios, Jade Raymond dit avoir «la latitude d’un éditeur indépendant et les moyens d’un grand studio».

www.ledevoir.com

Original article in French mentions him.

 

[arvfab]

I find it rather odd the original article seems to be assuming she meant Cerny w/o her saying it.

It's a PS exclusive from a third party.. they all get support from XDev don't they? But why would Cerny specifically be involved?

Maybe Cerny wants to get involved with her

 

[IntentionalPun]

Sony mise sur Montréal pour déjouer Microsoft

Avec Haven Studios, Jade Raymond dit avoir «la latitude d’un éditeur indépendant et les moyens d’un grand studio».

www.ledevoir.com

Original article in French mentions him.

Yeah that's what I'm talking about though.

Maybe someone who speaks French can explain it but the Google translate doesn't really say they are definitely working with Cerny:

The Montreal publisher should soon confirm a collaboration with the main architect of the PS5, the Californian designer Mark Cerny. The objective is to make Haven programmers benefit from its expertise to better exploit the mechanics that purr under the hood of the PS5.

“Our ambition will be to push the technical capabilities of the console further,” explains Jade Raymond, who herself began her career in video games at Sony. “We will have the opportunity to work with people at Sony who are among the best in the world in their field. This will allow us to create the best quality games”, adds Paola Jouyaux.

Not saying he absolutely wouldn't be involved but seems like a bit of a leap to take her quote and say he is.

 

[SlimySnake]

Inclusive and caring social platform lol, can’t wait to see how this turns out.

Two days after launch:

 

[SantaC]

When is the last time she made a relevant game? Didnt she blame DICE on her failings with EA

 

[Yoboman]

How do we know this though? it looks like sony are shifting their focus to live service games. This is already a massive change because sony have always been more single player focused. That's why they got bungie too. To help them with the service games.

Because they've announced the devs they are working with on the ten live service projects they are working

Haven studios - Jade Raymond studio
Deviation Games - former COD devs
Firesprite studios - former Bungie
Bungie - 2 or 3 Destiny 2 expansions and a new IP in 2025
GT7
Factions 2
Guerilla multiplayer project

Thats an educated guess on the ten live service games Sony announced. Of course they might not be counting Destiny expansions for that

The only ones coming from current studios are GT which is already live service, Factions 2 and Guerilla's game. Which are from new teams in Naughty Dog and Guerilla (eg Guerilla hired the Rainbow Six Siege director as lead). And these devs do already have an existing multiplayer history

Its being separated out from single player projects though, as Sony is still making those like Horizon, Spiderman 2, GOW Ragnarok etc

 

[mortal]

Two days after launch:

"I was gang raped" sounds about as retarded as claiming "I was murdered in GTA Online" lol

 

[Fbh]

Man, it's sounding more and more like in the next 10 years I'll have to switch to playing exclusively AA and indie games.
Hopefully Nintendo holds out for a while longer before Mario turns into Roblox and Metroid has you grinding for loot for 80 hours.

 

[Nankatsu]

Oh Jade Raymond... The same one that ran along with Stadia Project.

 

[newtypepilot]

the same Raymond responsible for the train wreck that is Stadia??

no thanks

 

[Hawking Radiation]

Sony needs an AAA gaas game.

I'm on board for whatever it is. Anything but a fortnite clone lol

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Anyone else getting annoyed as shit about all this live service talk from Sony? feels like sony are Dumping our old asses and chasing after the fresh younger generation. I don't care or have any interest in their "10 live service games by 2026". Take 5 off that number and turn them into single players RPG's instead.

Every single Sony studio is working on single player games. Just because new studios aren't doesn't mean they are dumping us.

Insomniac is working in 2 single player games. Guerrilla is 50/50: one single player and one multiplayer. Naughty Dog is working on factions but they are also working in single player games. Gran Turismo has both. Sony Santa Monica I don't think they are working on a multiplayer game unless Cory's game is multiplayer.

Sounds like they aren't sacrificing single player experiences for multiplayer ones.

 

[ShaikhCroft]

As in from 3 persons to 9 persons? Damn it's impressive!

 

[Yoboman]

Sony needs an AAA gaas game.

I'm on board for whatever it is. Anything but a fortnite clone lol

Yeah, without COD they 100% need to do this and get it right to fill the gap

Honestly will be interesting if Sony make a direct COD competitor and do a better job at it. Would be good to see COD face some real competition

 

[jaysius]

How many dead GaaS games does it take until they finally realize it's a shitty genre that nobody really wants.

 

[El Pistolero]

Anyone else getting annoyed as shit about all this live service talk from Sony? feels like sony are Dumping our old asses and chasing after the fresh younger generation. I don't care or have any interest in their "10 live service games by 2026". Take 5 off that number and turn them into single players RPG's instead.

Me neither, but they have got to adapt to thrive, or even survive. With this consolidation going on, they might get deprived of even more multiplatform titles, which will prompt them to find more ways to make money to sustain their first party efforts. I loath GaaS projects, but if they allow Sony to finance more titles ala God of War and Horizon, so be it...

 

[Kerotan]

count me out. i only care for single player games. i like to buy a game, play it, move on. I dont give a shit about all these "services". Jesus, why must everything be a service. Just serve me a great game.

Or you could do what I did with destiny. Play it for cheaper 2 years later or in my case free with ps plus. So much extra content to play. Then give it a 2 year break and come back and buy all the new content on sale.

 

[kingfey]

Anyone else getting annoyed as shit about all this live service talk from Sony? feels like sony are Dumping our old asses and chasing after the fresh younger generation. I don't care or have any interest in their "10 live service games by 2026". Take 5 off that number and turn them into single players RPG's instead.

SP games dont make that much that money, compared to GAAS.

Fortnite is tiny bit of spiderman, yet it made 5x-10x of spiderman right now. That is one of their biggest IP, because its Spiderman.

Sony cant make those games, while companies like epic, EA, take2 and MS make tons of money from GAAS.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

How many dead GaaS games does it take until they finally realize it's a shitty genre that nobody really wants.

Dr Who coming in from a different dimension to post this on GAF!

 

[Elbereth]

As long as the quality is consistent with Sony’s pedigree for the last few years:

 

[Anos Voldigoad]

“Our ambition will be to push the technical capabilities of the console further,” said Raymond.

Spoiler

Give me sci-fi with capital sized spaceships and I'm in

 

[Kokoloko85]

count me out. i only care for single player games. i like to buy a game, play it, move on. I dont give a shit about all these "services". Jesus, why must everything be a service. Just serve me a great game.

As Long as Playstation keep making the same amout or even more single players games Ill be happy. If they dont of course its a problem but single player games are a part of Playstation‘s DNA.

The reason they are doing some Gaas is because they need some multiplayer games and they make alot of money, when other publishers are making tons of money why not. Games like GTA, Apex, Fornite etc make a ton. And they could end up with games like Rocket league, FF14 which are cool etc

 

[Elder Legend]

count me out. i only care for single player games. i like to buy a game, play it, move on. I dont give a shit about all these "services". Jesus, why must everything be a service. Just serve me a great game.

Serve you? Well aren't we a bit entitled? The world doesn't revolve around you. Others exist. Get over it.

 

[elliot5]

Online platform “owned by the fans” sure sounds like fucking NFTs bruh

 

[DarthPutin]

They syphoned off a lot of experienced stuff from Ubisoft Canada. No need to purchase them))
I'm curious what they'll come up with, even though it probably won't be for me.
That said, I could get down with some endless game one day, but it has to be something like endless Witcher Online or something. Big 3d person RPG fantasy world with monsters, cities, or at least sci fi with interesting creatures.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

I will jump to every conclusion because I'm smart but give me Knack monthly avatars and I'll pay month fees

 

[lh032]

"GaaS"

 

[itsjustJEFF]

I personally don't understand all the hate for GaaS/LifeService games, I've had some of the best times with friends in those games. I also have no idea where is "Sony is leaving single player games..." in coming from. They're hiring studios that know how to make GaaS/LiveService games for them, because they know that's not their strength.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Knack Online confirmed.

Knack Creed: Assassin Knack

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION: Now a brooding loner, Knack uses his body to sneak and murder targets in a persistent online world. Fellow Knackssasins are on the prowl; join them in guilds to pursue a nefarious target, or strike against them to clear the way for your ultimate glory.

 

[Hendrick's]

Marble Madness Online with NFT balls.

 

[EDMIX]

Because they've announced the devs they are working with on the ten live service projects they are working

Haven studios - Jade Raymond studio
Deviation Games - former COD devs
Firesprite studios - former Bungie
Bungie - 2 or 3 Destiny 2 expansions and a new IP in 2025
GT7
Factions 2
Guerilla multiplayer project

Thats an educated guess on the ten live service games Sony announced. Of course they might not be counting Destiny expansions for that

The only ones coming from current studios are GT which is already live service, Factions 2 and Guerilla's game. Which are from new teams in Naughty Dog and Guerilla (eg Guerilla hired the Rainbow Six Siege director as lead). And these devs do already have an existing multiplayer history

Its being separated out from single player projects though, as Sony is still making those like Horizon, Spiderman 2, GOW Ragnarok etc

Agreed, was just about the say the same thing.

Getting the original Halo creators, ex Call Of Duty developers, Rainbow Six director etc ensures that they will have some massive hits and minimize flops. I think it was great that Sony gave those teams a chance during the PS3 generation to hit some FPS and MP titles out of the park, but it just didn't work out, why keep having Insomniac try to do this when we know their best is single player? So they got their bite at the apple, its time those teams just solely focus on those single player IP they've been working on and Sony focus those MP efforts on actual teams that have a history of doing that correctly.

 

[Northeastmonk]

They just want to do what EA did eventually and have their own Apex Legends equivalent.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Sony needs an AAA gaas game.

I'm on board for whatever it is. Anything but a fortnite clone lol

That's probably what it'll end up being. Or at the very least, it'll be inspired by it, same how Fortnite was inspired by Minecraft.

 

[SteadyEvo]

count me out. i only care for single player games. i like to buy a game, play it, move on. I dont give a shit about all these "services". Jesus, why must everything be a service. Just serve me a great game.

Unfortunately for you, me and anyone else the dislikes this shit, the numbers don’t lie. And those in charge see this trend and plan to milk it dry.

But there still plenty of studios working on “traditional” games. Really wish Sony would March to the beat of their own drum like Nintendo. They’re more than capable of being successful and profitable without chasing trends.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

No because they are hiring and working with new developers on it, the stable of devs at Playstation Studios still has a main focus on great singleplayer games

We’ll see. I feel that if these live service games perform really well, Sony will slowly give them much more priority over single games much like the way they pushed Japanese games on the backburner because of the success of Western games.

 

[Sosokrates]

Cerny certainly does have a knack for state of the art visuals.