PlayStation 4 and 5 lead system architect Mark Cerny is working with Jade Raymond’s studio, Haven, on research and development.
In an interview with GamesIndustry, Raymond said that Haven has significantly increased its investment in both R&D and cloud development. As a result, Cerny has taken notice of the studio’s work.
“So [Mark Cerny] is one of the main reasons we're investing so much in R&D, and in this very senior engineering team. It's not just tied to cloud but also some more forward-thinking R&D,” Raymond explains. “I'm not able to say too much now, but that's obviously one of the other things that's been a big attractor and is exciting to our team with PlayStation. Of course, Mark Cerny is kind of like a rockstar, too, so being able to collaborate with him is really exciting.”
Back in March, PlayStation announced that it would be acquiring Haven and that the studio is working on a new live service game featuring social elements and user-generated content. This aligns with the platform's plan to launch more than 10 live service games by 2026.
"We're making an exclusive for PS5, and it is a live service game, so we have additional challenges of how do we make that kind of game with that kind of delivery, but with the PlayStation-level graphics that people expect," Raymond adds. "All while allowing for those constant updates and building something that could be a living experience."
Haven is also focusing quite a bit on cloud infrastructure, as the studio believes it can revolutionize game development. The studio's vision started during the pandemic, so Raymond decided to build into the cloud. She asks, “We didn't have offices at first and we thought why not innovate here and avoid people having these big machines and VPNing in?”
Haven initially only had six people on its cloud team. Now, the studio has hired an additional 21 engineers to build out its long-term cloud initiatives. One of these hires is Jalal El Mansouri, who was previously the technical architect on Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six: Siege. He joins Haven as the principle architect and head of R&D, working with CTO Leon O’Reilly.
Cerny was behind the design of both of Sony’s last two hit consoles and presented a deep dive of the PS5 back in 2020 before it launched.
Before founding Haven, Raymond was the head of Games and Entertainment at Stadia until early last year when Google announced it would be shutting down first-party development.
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey