The head of Electronic Arts' Motive studio Patrick Klaus has said that the publisher has changed a great deal between his initial stint at the firm to his return earlier this year.

Speaking to GI.biz, the development exec said that the current EA feels like "a different company' from when he worked at the publishing giant between 2002 and 2012, before he moved to Ubisoft's Quebec operation. He was appointed as VP and GM of Motive in April of this year. This followed the departure of fellow Ubisoft vet Jade Raymond, who moved to Google in March 2019.

"It feels like a different company, a company that's very much focused on quality," Klaus said.

"That's part of the reason that got me excited about coming back, really the number one priority is that we want to make great games, and EA execs are really empowering Montreal with the amount of talent we have in the studio to play a big part in making some awesome games for EA."

He continued: "It's different times, a different leadership, a different message. And it's reinforced every day in the messages and discussions we have. It really feels like that's the absolute priority."

Motive is under some pressure to deliver games. Though the studio was founded in 2015 by Raymond, it hasn't actually released its own title yet and is best known for collaborating on Star Wars Battlefront II. The firm was also working on cancelled Star Wars project Ragtag with Visceral Games.