 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 13 July 2015 |
| Founder | Jade Raymond |
| Headquarters | , Canada |
Number of locations | 2 studios (2018) |
Key people | Patrick Klaus (general manager) |
Number of employees | >100 [1] (2017) |
| Parent | Electronic Arts |
| Website | ea.com/studios/motive |
Motive Studio (also known as EA Motive and Motive) is a Canadian video game developer and studio of Electronic Arts (EA) based in Montreal.
Motive Studio was founded within Electronic Arts (EA) by Jade Raymond, a former Ubisoft executive and producer, at the helm. Her appointment was announced on 13 July 2015. [2] Motive focuses on action-adventure games and creating new intellectual properties. [3] [4]
Kim Swift was hired as Motive's design director in January 2017. [5] The Montreal studio of BioWare, another EA developer, was merged into Motive in August 2017. [6] A Vancouver branch for Motive was announced in June 2018. [7] Following Raymond's departure in 2018, Patrick Klaus, a former managing director for Ubisoft Quebec, was hired by EA as senior vice-president and Motive's general manager. [8]
While Motive had been working on Star Wars titles from the formation of the studio, the studio also had a second project under the working name Gaia that it had been developing. Motive nor EA had said much of this game outside of a 2020 promotional video showing a few seconds of footage from it, and calling it "a highly ambitious, innovative new game that puts the power and creativity in your hands". According to Bloomberg News , while part of Motive was working on Star Wars Battlefront II, the other portion was working on Gaia; once Battlefront II had shipped, its team was absorbed into the Gaia team by 2018 and caused some cultural clashes within the studio, causing some of the studio executives to leave, followed by Raymond later that year. Gaia had to be rebooted following these departures, extending its development time. Further, according to Bloomberg, as a result of a review of its current slate of projects in February 2021, EA cancelled the development of Gaia, though Motive will continue on with other projects. [9]
Venture Beat reported that Motive was working on a revival of the Dead Space series starting with a remake of the first game, in the same vein as the Resident Evil 2 remake. [10] It was released on January 27, 2023 and received favorable reviews from critics. [11]
In September 2022, EA announced that Motive is working on an action-adventure Iron Man game with Marvel Games. [12] A Battlefield project was also announced in April 2024, shortly after the closure of Ridgeline Games, who had previously worked on the same project. [13]
| Year | Title | Platform(s) | Notes | Ref(s). |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Star Wars Battlefront II | Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One | In collaboration with DICE and Criterion Games | [14] |
| 2020 | Star Wars: Squadrons | Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One | — | [15] |
| 2023 | Dead Space | Windows, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S | A remake of the 2008 video game of the same name | [16] |
| TBA | Untitled Iron Man game | TBA | In collaboration with Marvel Games | [12] |
| Untitled Battlefield game | TBA | In collaboration with DICE, Criterion Games, and Ripple Effect | [13] | |
| Cancelled | Project Ragtag | Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One | In collaboration with Visceral Games and EA Vancouver | [17] [18] |
| Cancelled | Gaia | — | — | [19] |
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the designers and programmers responsible for its games as "software artists". EA published numerous games and some productivity software for personal computers, all of which were developed by external individuals or groups until 1987's Skate or Die! The company shifted toward internal game studios, often through acquisitions, such as Distinctive Software becoming EA Canada in 1991.
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Assassin's Creed is a historical action-adventure video game series and media franchise published by Ubisoft and developed mainly by its studio Ubisoft Montreal using the game engine Anvil and its more advanced derivatives. Created by Patrice Désilets, Jade Raymond, and Corey May, the Assassin's Creed video game series depicts a fictional millennia-old struggle between the Order of Assassins, who fight for peace and free will, and the Knights Templar, who desire peace through order and control. The series features historical fiction, science fiction, and fictional characters intertwined with real-world historical events and historical figures. In most games, players control a historical Assassin while also playing as an Assassin Initiate or someone caught in the Assassin–Templar conflict in the present-day framing story. Considered a spiritual successor to the Prince of Persia series, Assassin's Creed took inspiration from the novel Alamut by the Slovenian writer Vladimir Bartol, based on the historical Hashashin sect of the medieval Iran (Persia).
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Ubisoft Toronto Inc. is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Toronto. The studio was established under Jade Raymond in September 2010. Games developed by Ubisoft Toronto include Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Far Cry 5, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, Far Cry 6, and Watch Dogs Legion.
Assassin's Creed Unity is a 2014 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released in November 2014 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, and in December 2020 for Stadia. It is the eighth major installment in the Assassin's Creed series, and the successor to 2013's Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. It also has ties to Assassin's Creed Rogue, which was released for the previous generation consoles on the same day as Unity.
Red Barrels Inc. is a Canadian video game developer based in Montreal. The company was founded by Philippe Morin, David Chateauneuf and Hugo Dallaire in 2011. The three were previously developers for Ubisoft Montreal and EA Montreal, but founded the company after the origination of an original intellectual property by Dallaire in 2010. After leaving their respective workplaces, the team's online presence began in July 2012 and a trailer for the game that became Outlast.
Since the 2010s and before, the video game company Electronic Arts has been at the center of numerous controversies involving acquisitions of companies and anti-consumer practices in their individual games, as well as lawsuits alleging anti-competitive practices on EA's part when signing sports-related contracts. In 2012 and 2013, the company was named "Worst Company in America" by Consumerist, while it was named the 5th most hated company in the United States by USA Today in 2018.
Alex Hutchinson is an Australian video game director and designer. He is best known for his work as the creative director for Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed III and Far Cry 4. After a long stint at Ubisoft, he has since co-founded his own video game development company, Typhoon Studios.
Assassin's Creed Origins is a 2017 action role-playing game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the tenth major installment in the Assassin's Creed series, following 2015's Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Principally set in Egypt, near the end of the Ptolemaic period from 49 to 38 BC, the story follows a Medjay named Bayek of Siwa and his wife Aya as they seek revenge for the murder of their son. It also explores the origins of the Assassin Brotherhood—referred here to as the Hidden Ones—and of their millennia-long conflict with the Order of the Ancients—forerunners to the Templar Order. The framing story, set in the 21st century, follows a new character, Layla Hassan, who relives Bayek and Aya's memories using a modified Animus device.
Ubisoft Singapore Pte. Ltd. is a Singaporean video game developer and studio of Ubisoft based at Fusionopolis in One-north, Singapore. The studio was founded in 2008 and has contributed to the majority of Assassin's Creed games. It also led the development of the 2024 title Skull and Bones.
Project Ragtag was a codename for an untitled action-adventure third-person shooter video game set within the Star Wars universe. It had been under development by Visceral Games since around 2013 and set to be published by Electronic Arts before its cancellation in 2017. The project was led by the creator of the Uncharted series, Amy Hennig. It was to be a linear game about a large-scale heist, taking place in the wake of events of Star Wars IV: A New Hope. EA Vancouver and Motive Studio had assisted the game's development. Visceral Games was shut down by Electronic Arts on October 17, 2017, and the game's development was rebooted by EA Vancouver to become an open world title. Despite this, the project was reportedly cancelled.
