Why the creator of Forza Horizon is building a rival studio to reinvent the racing genre
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Following the success of Forza Horizon 6, original series creator Gavin Raeburn reveals why he left Playground Games to form Lighthouse Games, aiming to disrupt the racing genre with a new, highly ambitious project.
Forza Horizon sits comfortably near the absolute peak of the racing genre. As reported by Polygon in a recent piece by Oli Welsh, the franchise has left traditional rivals in the dust through polished open-world design, consistent technical excellence, and a massive roster of real-world vehicles. Yet despite the explosive multi-platform success of Forza Horizon 6, the series faces a subtle danger disguised as safety. It rarely innovates. Aside from shifting toward a live-service seasonal structure in recent iterations, the core formula has largely remained a known quantity for years.
That tension between reliable commercial success and creative stagnation is precisely why industry veteran Gavin Raeburn walked away. Raeburn co-founded Playground Games in 2009 after a stellar run at Codemasters, but he departed the studio following the release of Forza Horizon 5. In a recent interview with Forbes, Raeburn explained that corporate conservatism at Xbox ultimately blocked his ambitions to push the franchise and the racing genre forward. Rather than settling into a routine, he founded a new startup called Lighthouse Games, located just streets away from his former office and backed by Tencent.
Lighthouse Games is now staffed by heavy-hitting veterans from both Playground and Codemasters, and Raeburn is promising a generational leap for driving games that matches the impact the original Horizon had over a decade ago. While Playground currently holds a near-monopoly on high-end open-world racing, the appetite for true innovation in digital driving spaces remains massive. If Lighthouse can deliver on that promise, players could soon see a genuine challenger shake up a genre that has coasted on comfort for far too long.
Tags: Racing Games, Forza Horizon, Industry News, Lighthouse Games, Playground Games
Original article: Polygon