A group of senior Ubisoft devs have joined Google’s in-house Stadia studio

Google has expanded its Stadia development team by hiring a group of senior Ubisoft developers, according to a new report from VGC. Stadia Games and Entertainment was opened earlier this year with the remit of working on first-party titles for the Stadia. The Montreal-based studio is led by industry veteran Jade Raymond, who spent over a decade at Ubisoft working on franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell, and Watch Dogs. 

Now, Raymond will be joined by fellow Ubisoft alumni Sebastien Puel, Francois Pelland and Mathieu Leduc. Puel has been appointed as general director at Stadia Games, having previously spent a decade working as an executive producer on the Assassin’s Creed franchise. 

Pelland has been brought in as the fledgling head of production, while Leduc has been named art director. During their time at Ubisoft, Pelland served as the executive director of development at Assassin’s Creed Syndicate developer Ubisoft Quebec, while Leduc was the art director at Ubisoft Montreal and worked on both Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs.

Earlier this year, Raymond explains that Stadia Games will look to create exclusive content in-house, while also working with third-party developers on other projects. 

“As the head of Stadia Games and Entertainment, I will not only be bringing first-party game studios to reimagine the new generation of games,” she commented back in March. “Our team will also be working with external developers to make all of the bleeding-edge Google technology you’ve seen here today available to partner studios big and small.”