Dev team behind Forza Horizon 5 leaves Xbox’s Playground Games to form new studio

Playground's technical director, Matt Craven, has taken up the role of chief technology officer for Maverick Games. The technical art director at the Xbox studio, Gareth Harwood, is picking up content directing responsibilities for the new studio while audio director Fraser Strachan is keeping the same role as when he was working on Forza. The same goes for former Playground studio art director, Ben Penrose, who is now Maverick's art director.

The announcement was highlighted with the usual boilerplate quote from creative director Brown who had this to say on this special occasion:

Our goal is for Maverick Games to be a studio people will love," he says. "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.

Mavericks are the complete opposite of team players, but these talented folks are already hard at work on their new project. With a "premium open-world game for consoles and PC" in the works and funding secured before they stepped out of Playground Games, the onus is completely on them. They nailed it with Forza Horizon 5 which was released in November 2021. It immediately became the biggest launch in Xbox history according to Microsoft. With over 10 million players registered in the first week and 20 million active users in seven months since its release, the latest edition of the Forza franchise was a complete success.