Lighthouse Games: Playground Games Veteran’s New Studio

Former Playground Games manager and founder Gavin Raeburn announces the creation of an independent British studio, Lighthouse Games.

After losing several developers earlier in the year following the creation of Maverick Games with creative director Mike Brown, Playground Games (Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studios subsidiary) is still seeing its talents leave ship for Lighthouse Games, created by Gavin Raeburn. This new AAA market contender, based at the Royal Leamington Spa in the UK, is working on a new license that could tease licenses like Forza and Gran Turismo.

Playground Games co-founder Gavin Raeburn has founded a new studio, AAA Lighthouse Games. Find out more in our full interview here: https://t.co/FXc7Adfx4C

— GamesIndustry (@GIBiz) March 27, 2023

Gavin Raeburn said:

I am very happy that about 30 former colleagues and other heavyweights of the gaming industry have decided to join me at Lighthouse Games. Together with Forza Horizon, Playground Games and I created one of the most successful Xbox franchises of all time. Year after year, we have achieved significant, critically acclaimed commercial success, which is in line with my experience at Codemasters running Dirt, Grid and F1. That DNA carries over into Lighthouse Games today, and we intend to create something truly special by using all of our experience to create a new franchise that will become the hallmark of the genre.

The publisher has already received the first creation of Lighthouse Games

While Lighthouse Games has more freedom than Playground Games, Gavin Raeburn’s studio is investing heavily in developing unique tools and pipelines with the help of a publisher that declined to be mentioned so far:

We wanted to work with a publisher that doesn’t just look for quick returns, but keeps our team safe, who expresses the same passion we do for making the best and greatest games, and who understands what it takes to make our game a success. global audience.

It should be noted that Lighthouse Games is currently recruiting and is hoping the Leamington lure will help it out, although like most studios in the industry today, remote work allows the company to open other talent pools to newcomers. Gavin Raeburn is also committed to supporting local universities, hiring graduates and creating mentoring opportunities for his development team.