Forza Horizon 5 creative director and several team members form new studio Maverick Games
The new studio is already at work on its first games.
Matthew Fuller 
Image via Forza
It’s not uncommon for veteran developers to move on from their studios to start their own endeavors, and today we saw it happen again, with several developers from Playground Games leaving the company to form their own studio. The new studio is called Maverick Games and is led up by Mike Brown, the creative director behind Forza Horizon 5 and a veteran of Playground Games.
Brown is one of several former Playground staff who have formed this new studio, with most taking higher positions in the studio. These include Tom Butcher, the studio’s executive producer, Matt Craven as chief technical officer, Gareth Harwood as content director, Fraser Strachan as audio director, and Ben Penrose as art director.
In a press release, the studio spoke about its goals as a company, stating, “our goal is for Maverick Games to be a studio people will love,” and confirming they had secured “significant seed funding” and have begun work on their first title. Little is known about the studio’s first game, other than it will be a “premium open-world game for consoles and PC”. They also spoke about what they hope they can provide for developers, saying they hope to create a studio culture that encourages developers to take creative risks, innovate, be themselves, and “be a Maverick.”
Playground Games was founded back in 2010 and is best known for its work on the Forza Horizon series, with its most recent outing, 2021’s Forza Horizon 5 earning both praise and success for its stunning graphics and gameplay. A separate team in the studio is now working on the new entry to the popular Fable franchise, which was announced in 2020 and has been in development for a few years. Little else is known about the title at this time.
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