Several Forza Horizon Developers Leave Playground Games and Xbox to Form New Studio
Several developers from Xbox's Forza Horizon developer Playground Games have left the company to form a new studio, Maverick Games.
As reported by Eurogamer, former Forza Horizon 5 creative director Mike Brown will lead the new studio and is joined by five other former Playground employees. The development team is at work on a "premium open world game for consoles and PC" and has already secured "significant seed funding".
The other developers making the jump to Maverick Games include Playground's lead producer Tom Butcher, technical director Matt Craven, technical art director Gareth Harwood, audio director Fraser Stachan, and art director Ben Penrose.
"For players, we're already at work on an exciting ultra-high quality title, and for developers, we're building a home where everyone is encouraged to take risks, be curious, be creative, be innovative, be themselves, and above all - be a Maverick," the developer said.
Playground Games was founded in 2010 and until recently has only developed Forza Horizon games. It made the switch to something new in 2020, however, when Xbox announced it would be working on Fable, the latest game in its fantasy RPG franchise.
“I just look at what Playground has done with the Horizon series – that attention to detail, the ability to represent these naturalistic landscapes," said head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty around the time.
"They also have a real passion for the IP and a unique point of view on what’s core to Fable. Everything I’ve seen as the game progresses tells me this is going to be a very high-quality release.”
In our 10/10 review of Forza Horizon 5, IGN said: "Forza Horizon 5 is the result of a racing studio at the peak of its craft and the best open-world racing game available."
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