Jade Raymond‘s (ex-Ubisoft; Assassin’s Creed) Motive has expanded heavily since it was formed three years ago, which explains how they have capabilities to work on multiple titles.

Motive has previously absorbed BioWare Montreal (the developers of Mass Effect: Andromeda), as well as EA Vancouver, which got renamed to Motive Vancouver. Under the Motive banner, no less than four games are in development – in the Vancouver studio, the ex-Visceral, ex-Amy Hennig, redesigned Star Wars project, and the next Plants vs. Zombies are in development, while the Montreal team has an AAA title, as well as a smaller, „passion project.” Regarding the bigger game, we heard years ago that it is going to be an action-adventure game similar to Assassin’s Creed (which fits Raymond: she was the producer of the first AC game…), with exploration and sci-fi themes… as well as a multiplayer/social aspect. Raymond talked about this game to GameInformer:

„One of the big fundamental needs is sharing experiences with friends. Video games are a widely enjoyed pastime of people now. It’s not just, oh, I’m a gamer. I’m a nerd. I play on my own in the basement. So, how do you deliver something that is an incredibly enjoyable way to spend time with friends? I think that’s been answered in some categories, but not the category of action-adventure. We’re building it so that it can support major changes that keep the experience fresh more within the construct of still staying live.”

The last sentence hints at dynamic updates, as well as live services, something that Battlefield V is going to use this autumn. Raymond also revealed that Motive wants to have a game for everyone, regardless of being hardcore or casual, on mobile or console, or on other platforms. It might be one of the reasons why „Electronic Arts’ Assassin’s Creed” is still in an early development phase.

Motive Montreal’s second project might be close to completion: „We have a big IP, and then we have a second project, and the thing that I’m excited about is that project was born from three passionate people who just worked on a pitch in their spare time. They were super passionate, saying ‘Let us prototype it, let us do it,’ and we managed to give them some space to get it done because it was exciting. People saw what was going on and more people wanted to join their team. Now it’s a fully-fledged project, so we were able to get that going within Motive, which I think is one of the benefits of having a smaller studio.”

How much progress could have Motive made if Electronic Arts hadn’t pulled them over to develop the single-player campaign for Star Wars Battlefront II after the outcry of the first game not having one? We may never know…

Source: WCCFTech