Jade Raymond of Sony's new Haven studio.

Jade Raymond’s EA Motive studio now employs more than 100 people

Electronic Arts’ Motive studio has grown to more than 100 employees in Montreal, the company said today.

The studio’s chief is Jade Raymond, the group general manager in charge of Motive as well as EA’s Visceral studio in Redwood City, Calif. Motive had to ramp up quickly, as EA hired Raymond away from Ubisoft in July 2015. EA assigned Motive to do work on new Star Wars titles, including the Star Wars Battlefront II game coming later this year.

Blockbuster studios routinely staff up to 100 or more employees as they work on big games like Battlefront or Assassin’s Creed.

Blake Jorgensen, chief financial officer at EA, said during the company’s earnings call today that Motive had ramped up and was finalizing its new office space.

“It’s been exciting to build such a great new team,” Jorgensen said.

Over time, the expansion will be more gradual, with Motive growing from more than 100 people to around 150, Jorgensen said.

Raymond has worked on high profile games such as the original Assassin’s Creed, Assassin’s Creed II, and Watch Dogs. Motive is working on Star Wars Battlefront II as well as an unannounced Star Wars game.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.