Forza Horizon 5 creative director and several team members break away from Playground Games

A group of Forza Horizon developers have quit Xbox’s Playground Games to form a new studio, Maverick Games.

The fresh team is led by Playground veteran and Forza Horizon 5 creative director Mike Brown, with work already underway on the a new “premium open-world game for consoles and PC”.

Brown is one of six former Playground staff at Maverick. Tom Butcher, a lead producer at Playground, serves as the studio’s executive producer. Matt Craven, a technical director at Playground, is its chief technical officer. Gareth Harwood, a technical art director, is Maverick’s content director. Fraser Stachan, an audio director at Playground, holds the same post – as does Ben Penrose, a former Playground art director.

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Maverick is based alongside Playground Games in the UK games development hub of Leamington Spa. In a press release, the studio stated it had already secured “significant seed funding” and was now “actively working on its new game”. “Our goal is for Maverick Games to be a studio people will love,” said Brown. “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.”