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Motive Studio

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Motive Studio
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
Founded13 July 2015; 9 years ago (2015-07-13)
FounderJade Raymond
Headquarters
Montreal
,
Canada
Number of locations
2 studios (2018)
Key people
Patrick Klaus (general manager)
Number of employees
>100[1] (2017)
ParentElectronic Arts
Websiteea.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.

History

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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]

Games developed

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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]

References

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  1. ^ Takahashi, Dean (9 May 2017). "Jade Raymond's EA Motive studio now employs more than 100 people". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2017.
  2. ^ Molina, Brett (13 July 2015). "EA launches Montreal studio with ex-Ubisoft developer". USA Today. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  3. ^ Pereira, Chris (15 October 2015). "EA Wants to Expand Into the GTA, Assassin's Creed "Gigantic Action" Game Genre". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  4. ^ Saed, Sherif (17 November 2015). "EA working on its own action game in the style of Assassin's Creed". VG247. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  5. ^ Makuch, Eddie (19 January 2007). "Portal, Left 4 Dead Developer Kim Swift Joins EA". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 3 September 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  6. ^ Kerr, Chris (1 August 2017). "EA confirms BioWare Montreal is merging with Motive". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 14 June 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  7. ^ Kerr, Chris (1 June 2018). "Battlefront II developer EA Motive expands with Vancouver opening". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 16 June 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  8. ^ Sinclair, Brendan (12 December 2019). "Motive GM establishes means and opportunity". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on 6 January 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  9. ^ Schreier, Jason (25 February 2021). "Electronic Arts Cancels 'Gaia' Game After Years in Development". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  10. ^ Grubb, Jeff (1 July 2021). "Dead Space remake is in the works at Motive". Venture Beat. Archived from the original on 2 July 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  11. ^ "Dead Space Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 14 June 2024. Retrieved 31 July 2024.
  12. ^ a b "Marvel Entertainment and Motive Studio team up for an all-new Iron Man video game". ea.com. 20 September 2022. Archived from the original on 20 September 2022. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  13. ^ a b Klaus, Patrick. "Motive joins Battlefield". ea.com. Archived from the original on 9 April 2024. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
  14. ^ Sarkar, Samit (29 March 2017). "Star Wars Battlefront 2 officially announced". Polygon. Archived from the original on 13 September 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  15. ^ Skrebels, Joe (15 June 2020). "Star Wars: Squadrons Officially Revealed, Out in October". IGN. Archived from the original on 15 June 2020. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  16. ^ Fillari, Alessandro (22 July 2021). "Dead Space Remake Announced, Developed By EA Motive". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 22 July 2021. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  17. ^ Karmali, Luke (13 July 2015). "Jade Raymond Starts New Studio To Work On Amy Hennig's Star Wars Game". IGN. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  18. ^ Schreier, Jason (27 October 2017). "The Collapse Of Visceral's Ambitious Star Wars Game". Kotaku. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
  19. ^ "EA reportedly cancels unannounced Assassin's Creed-like action game codenamed Gaia". Gamesradar.com. 29 January 2021. Archived from the original on 10 September 2022. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
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