Motive Studio (also known as EA Motive and Motive) is a Canadian

video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

and studio of

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

(EA) based in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. Motive focuses on

action-adventure game An action-adventure game is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements from an action ...

s and creating new intellectual properties.

History

Motive Studio was founded within

(EA) by

Jade Raymond Jade Raymond (born 28 August 1975) is a Canadian video game producer, best known for helping create the ''Assassin's Creed'' and '' Watch Dogs'' franchises, as well as building Ubisoft Toronto and Motive Studio. In March 2021, Raymond announc ...

, a former

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

executive and producer, at the helm. Her appointment was announced on 13 July 2015. Kim Swift was hired as Motive's design director in January 2017. The Montreal studio of

BioWare BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated Doctor of Medicine, medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip. Since 2007, the company has been owned by American ...

, another EA developer, was merged into Motive in August 2017. A

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

branch for Motive was announced in June 2018. Following Raymond's departure in 2018, Patrick Klaus, a former

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

for Ubisoft Quebec, was hired by EA as senior vice-president and Motive's

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

. 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 ''

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'', 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. ''

Venture Beat Venture may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music *The Ventures, an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 *"A Venture", 1971 song by the band Yes *''Venture'', a 2010 EP by AJR Games * ''Venture'' (video game), a 1981 arcade g ...

'' reported that Motive was working on a revival of the ''

Dead Space ''Dead Space'' is a science fiction horror franchise created and directed by Glen Schofield. ''Dead Space'' was developed by Visceral Games and published and owned by Electronic Arts. The franchise's chronology is not presented in a linear format ...

'' series starting with a remake of the first game, in the same vein as the ''Resident Evil 2'' remake. It was released on January 27, 2023 and received favorable reviews from critics. In September 2022, EA announced that Motive is working on an action-adventure

Iron Man Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, the character first appearan ...

game with

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. A

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project was also announced in April 2024, shortly after the closure of Ridgeline Games, who had previously worked on the same project. It is set for a FY 2026 release.

Games developed

References

External links

* {{Electronic Arts 2015 establishments in Quebec Companies based in Montreal Electronic Arts subsidiaries Canadian companies established in 2015 Video game companies established in 2015 Video game companies of Canada Video game development companies Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies