Skip to main content

‘Forza Horizon’ studio to open 2nd studio, but it won’t make a racing game

Forza Horizon developer Playground Games is only about seven years old, but the racing game studio is already expanding significantly. A second branch will be opening a short distance from its main Leamington Spa, England, headquarters, and it will begin working on a new open-world game. It won’t, however, have anything to do with racing.

“We feel like we’ve become pretty good at racing games over the years,” Ralph Fulton, Playground Games creative director, told Gamesindustry.biz. “We can always get better, [and] we can always strive to get better, but we’d love to prove ourselves in another genre.”

Though the studio’s second branch will be brand new, it will be staffed partially by veteran Playground Games employees. The company also plans to add about 85 positions in the future to presumably work on the unannounced open-world game rather Microsoft’s Forza series. The developer hopes to keep the teams working on the two games completely separate from one another so that “nothing on the two projects depends on one person.”

Playground Games’ track record so far has been essentially flawless. In 2012, Forza Horizon brought the Forza series into an open-world setting for the first time, and this approach was further polished in the game’s 2014 sequel. With last year’s Forza Horizon 3, the studio took the “Horizon Festival” to the beautiful land of Australia, with a diverse range of environments letting drivers zip through wooded areas, drift around city streets, and even satisfy their skateboarding fix with a construction area filled with ramps.

It would be great to see Playground breathe new life into another existing franchise, but it might be even better to let the studio develop an all-new IP.

Editors' Recommendations

Gabe Gurwin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
E3 2022 won’t happen in-person (and Summer Game Fest has already clapped back)
e3 2022 online only logo

For the third year in a row, E3 2022 will not happen as an in-person event. The Entertainment Software Association, which organizes the expo, has confirmed that the physical show has been cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the virus' new Omicron variant. In fact, the ESA didn't technically confirm that the show will happen in 2022 at all.

The news was broken by VentureBeat, which released a statement from the ESA regarding the yearly video game press conference. “Due to the ongoing health risks surrounding COVID-19 and its potential impact on the safety of exhibitors and attendees, E3 will not be held in person in 2022,” the ESA tells VentureBeat, “We are nonetheless excited about the future of E3 and look forward to announcing more details soon.”

Read more
How to fast travel in Forza Horizon 5
A classic automobile, pulling a tight turn to pursue a fast travel sign

We get it. You want to go fast -- that’s one of the reasons you are playing Forza Horizon 5 in the first place. At, 100, 200, even 300 miles per hour, you can blister across the picturesque Mexican landscape. But sometimes that’s still not enough to get you to your next race as fast as you’d like. That’s where fast travel comes in. This feature is restricted at first, but before long, you can teleport to virtually any spot on the map in an instant. We will show you how in this guide to Forza Horizon 5 fast travel.

Further reading

Read more
Forza Horizon 5 Beginner’s Guide: 11 Tips To Get You Started
A sports car at dusk in Forza Horizon 5.

Forza Horizon 5 is a stunning game. With its brilliant gameplay and detailed visuals, we called Forza Horizon 5 “the definitive racing game of the new console cycle” in our review. There is a lot you can do, and it can seem intimidating at first. That’s why we’ve put together this beginner’s guide to Forza Horizon 5.

Further reading

Read more