Award Winning Video Game Creators Reunite to Form SuperNatural Studios

2020 was a big year for Vancouver’s gaming ecosystem.

Independent gaming studios thrived as stay-at-home and lockdown orders from the pandemic increased sales of video games to record highs.

The year ended with not one, not two, but three acquisitions in the gaming space as $250+ million dollars flooded into the local market as global players continued to add independent studios to their IP portfolios.

While all that was happening two gaming industry veterans quietly co-founded what promises to be one of Vancouver’s next gaming stories.

SuperNatural Studios was founded by Larry LaPierre and Steve Rechtschaffner, a duo who’s gaming pedigree was born at everyone’s favorite Burnaby campus, Electronic Arts.

LaPierre spent 14 years at EA as a director, producer and then vice president, overseeing multiple releases in the SSX and Need for Speed franchises, as well as Skate 3 and the PlayStation adaptation of the original Diablo.

As a VP at EA, Rechtschaffner was responsible for the delivery of 40+ video game releases adding up to over a half-billion $s in revenue. This included original IP & brands like SSX & EA Sports BIG and licensed games like TP Baseball, NBA Street2, WCW Wrestling & FIFA Soccer.

Their love of art, sport, fashion, music and other cultural expressions translated into the ability to create and share cross-sections of pop society as more relevant experiences than games were ever known for.

The two left EA and continued padding the gaming resumes with senior roles at Daybreak, Microsoft, Nexon, Zynga, and more.

“SuperNatural will become known as an incubator for gaming’s most creative, most influential developing minds. Future industry superstars will look back at their time here as the most important place of learning and growth, remembered as the place where they did their best creative work. As gamers, we will create experiences we’re all proud to show the world,” Rechtschaffner told Techcouver.

LaPierre and Rechtschaffner’s leadership style has always been about trusting people’s curiosity and calling upon their diverse backgrounds and non-gaming lenses.

With their new gaming studio, they have partnered with a major western publisher of AAA games to help create a space where collective creativity and the foresight of cultural relevance fly in the face of the status quo.

Interested in working on Vancouver’s next big thing? Located in Mount Pleasant, SuperNatural is hiring for a number of open roles including Animators, Designers, and World Builders.