New Forza Horizon Update Has Bad News for Future of Series

A new update out of Plagyround Games has some bad news for Forza Horizon fans. The Forza Horizon series is arguably the greatest racing game series in the modern era and one of the best series Xbox makes. It’s been consistently high-quality for several installments now, but this streak could be under threat due to a round of departures. Like many AAA studios around the world have recently, Playground Games has bled some key talent during a time when it’s very difficult and expensive to hire, especially senior talent.

So, who is leaving the studio? Well, Forza Horizon’s creative director Mike Brown has left. Joining him is Tom Butcher (lead producer), Gareth Harwood (technical director), and Fraser Strachan (audio director). There are more, but these are the most notable.

AAA studios are more than just a few developers, but to lose your creative director and other key talent all at once can really impact a studio’s output, culture, and ability. Whether this will happen here, only time will tell, but it’s worrying news for Forza Horizon fans who have enjoyed a very stable and high-quality product over the years.

The exodus is because the slew of developers are opening a new studio dubbed Maverick Games. And this is better than the alternative, which is an exodus created by studio issues. It’s possible this is in play here, but there’s no suggestion of it. 

It remains to be seen what the new Playground Games hierarchy will look like, but the studio has a little time to figure it out as Forza Motorsport is up next, with the next Forza Horizon game likely two years away. In other words, it’s going to be a few years before we see if this switch-up will negatively impact the product that ultimately is the only thing Xbox fans care about. Sometimes losing a creative director and other leads ruins a studio, but more often than not these people are replaced through a mix of internal promotions and hiring and the consumer never knows any better.