Playground Games, famous for the epic Forza Horizon series, is to open a new studio that will focus on its first adventure into non-racing titles.
So far Playground has developed three Forza Horizon titles in partnership with Microsoft, but the developer itself remains independent. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, founder Ralph Fulton described the move:
Opening another studio is something we've been talking about for a good few years, but we've been keen not to rush into it. It's a great opportunity for us to test ourselves in a different genre.We feel like we've become pretty good at racing games over the years. We can always get better, we can always strive to get better but we'd love to prove ourselves in a different genre. That's another goal of Project 2, to allow us to do that. We're going to need to hire some very talented people with experience that we don't have.
The as yet unannounced title will be open-world, and that's about as much as we know at this point. Nevertheless, while looking forward, Playground won't be moving away from what has made everything possible: Forza.
Our business with Forza over the last six, seven years has been great for us. It remains the cornerstone of our business - we're not running away from racing, we still feel passionate about making new racing games and delivering new experiences for our players.
Forza Horizon 3 was the most critically and commercially well-received title in the franchise to date. And with good reason. With Playground's talent now thinking about turning its hands to other projects, the ultimate winners are the gamers. We can't wait to see what they come up with next.
