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It's been announced today that Playground Games (Forza Horizon) co-founder Gavin Raeburn has assembled a "veteran team" to form a new AAA games studio called "Lighthouse Games", currently working on an unannounced IP.
The team actually includes 30 former colleagues of Raeburn's, including "key founding members of Playground Games’ original team, and the intention is to create a "genre-defining franchise". No pressure, then!
Here's what Raeburn had to say about the new studio in a press release:
“I’m delighted that 30 former colleagues and other industry heavyweights have chosen to join me at Lighthouse. With Horizon, Playground and I created one of the most successful Xbox franchises of all time. We delivered significant commercial success year after year, to massive critical acclaim, following the success from my time at Codemasters leading Dirt, Grid and F1.
That DNA is now at Lighthouse, and with it, we intend to build something truly special using all our experience to create a new genre-defining franchise.”
This is actually the second time we've seen a story like this in 2023, with Forza Horizon 5 creative director Mike Brown also currently heading up a new AAA project at Maverick Games, so there's an awful lot of ex-Forza ambition out there!
It'll be interesting to see how Lighthouse Games and Maverick Games squeeze their way into the racing genre in years to come, and also how Forza Horizon will adapt over the next few years following some of these high-profile departures.
What do you make of this? Let us know down in the comments section below.
Comments 13
So many genre defying games nowadays......lol
Even more developers left Playground? This is starting to appear concerning for titles like Fable.
The last announcement for Maverick games was 6 key leads/ directors/ producers. This Lighthouse announcement is now their Studio Head / Studio Director and other "key founding members of Playground Games’ original team".
Top level talent has to be pretty thin on the ground at Playground. Their careers page has over 60+ job listings including many key roles. All rather concerning. I hope all is well in Albion!
@themightyant I wouldn't take this as all 30 employees left playground recently to join this studio. Just because some were "key members" in 2010, it doesn't necessarily mean they were still there 13 years later. Turnover is a natural part of every industry. While some stories like to make it seem like there was discontent when employees leave, it is often just them taking the next step in their career.
I still feel very confident in playground/fable.
@Somebody I don't think all 30 people did leave Playground, it doesn't say that. YES industry turn over is a natural part of any industry but this is the third article on key staff leaving PG in the last few months. In total over 10 people in key roles have left including their their co-founder / Studio Director, Creative Directors, Producers, Department leads etc. that is a lot of the core leadership team to lose in such a small spell. That isn't the normal churn of lower level staff, hence the concern. I want Fable to be brilliant!
@themightyant
Department leads etc. that is a lot of the core leadership team to lose in such a small spell. That isn't the normal churn of lower level staff, hence the concern. I want Fable to be brilliant
It's clear that the individuals you mentioned were not much interested in working on the Fable reboot (can't stop people from leaving) . If they did they would have likely stayed, Fable will be fine regardless, I'm sure. .
@Sol4ris it's possible they waited until FH5 shipped and was more or less complete. Seems like a natural time to move on if your at that point in your career. I wouldn't jump to a conclusion that they have no interest working on fable and we all know FH6 will be in some sort of development very soon if it isn't already.
It was reported in November 2021 that fable had already been in development for 4 years.
@Sol4ris @Somebody You are right that post FH5 - and once most of their work on the DLC was done - this was likely a good time to leave. I hope you are both right and all is well with Fable. It's one of my favourite series, and aside from Starfield it's my most hotly anticipated Xbox title.
@themightyant I see that as natural. Those people were founders of tue studio, sold to microsoft to make some money, but wanted to stay independent, so they left to form a new studio.
It's concerning that so many top people have left Playground. Although it remains unknown if they're leaving because they don't like what Playground is under MS ownership, or if that was their plan from the start when they sold to MS, to get a large sum of money selling their company for a fortune to MS, then go start a new company to keep doing what they were doing independently but with a pocket full of money. I think we all think of Rare and cringe, but it's impossible to know what the intentions at sale were. I suspect "Sure, I'll take 10s of millions then start a new studio to do what I was doing anyway without corporate governance above me still" is an easy "yes" to answer.
Now this has me excited! Something right up my alley.
Playing Forza horizon 5 for the first time, this game is amazing!
I'm excited about this studio, I also like it's name(reminds me of bioshock)
Forza has changed into a GaaS beast. 5 is still a truly amazing game. But you have to ignore a lot of noise. Silly time limited nonsense.
These guys know how to make racing games. I can’t wait.
Found this https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattgardner1/2023/03/28/forza-horizon-creator-unveils-new-studio-lighthouse-games/ nothing groundbreaking but it does mention a few of the bigger names that are now "lighthouse" and from where they originate respectively. Ubisoft, Codemasters, and other studios are mentioned, so it's not all strictly ex playground.
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