Playground Games

Playground Games Limited
Subsidiary
Industry Computer and video games
Founded 2010 (2010)
Headquarters Royal Leamington Spa, England, UK
Key people
 Gavin Raeburn
Trevor Williams
Ralph Fulton
Products Forza Horizon series
Number of employees
 200+ (February 2017) [1][2]
Parent Microsoft Studios (2018–present)
Website www.playground-games.com

Playground Games Limited is a British video game developer located in Royal Leamington Spa, England, United Kingdom and a subsidiary of American technology company Microsoft since 2018. It is known for developing the Forza Horizon series, which is part of the larger Forza franchise.

History

The development studio was established in 2010[3] by former employees of other well known British games developers, such as Codemasters, Bizarre Creations, Criterion Games, Ubisoft Reflections, Slightly Mad Studios, Black Rock Studio, Juice Games, SCE Studio Liverpool and many other developers that are known for their racing video games. At the 2012 Microsoft Showcase in California, Playground Games announced their first project, Forza Horizon. The title was developed in collaboration with Turn 10 Studios. The game was published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360, and released on 23 October 2012.[4] In September 2014 the studio released Forza Horizon 2 on both Xbox 360 and Xbox One, to critical acclaim and Forza Horizon 3, on Xbox One and Windows 10, in September 2016.[5] The third installment received an aggregated review score of 91 on Metacritic[6] making it the highest scoring exclusive game for the Xbox One.[7]

In February 2017, the studio detailed plans to open a new studio, focusing on a non-racing open world video game project, in an interview with gamesindustry.biz.[1] In November 2017 the company announced they were developing an "open-world action RPG" with Sean Eyestone as Production Director, as well as Will Kennedy, Chief Designer, and Juan Fernández de Simón, Principal Combat Designer. At the same time they announced a second studio, St. Albans House in Leamington Spa,[8] a 17,000 square foot space to accommodate the new team. Expected headcounts for each studio were in excess of 200 people.[9]

At E3 2018, Microsoft announced they had bought Playground Games.[10][11] At the same time, Microsoft also announced the upcoming Forza Horizon 4 video game, which was released on 2 October 2018, and that the studio was also working on a currently unannounced project.[12]

Games developed

Year Title Platform(s)
2012 Forza Horizon Xbox 360
2014 Forza Horizon 2 Xbox One
2016 Forza Horizon 3 Xbox One, Windows 10
2018 Forza Horizon 4 Xbox One, Windows 10
TBA TBA Xbox One, Windows 10

References

  1. 1 2 "Playground Games opening second studio for open world game". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  2. ↑ "About Playground Games". Playground Games. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "About Playground - Playground Games". Retrieved 5 July 2018.
  4. ↑ "Forza Horizon announcement". Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  5. ↑ "Forza Horizon 3 - Playground Games". www.playground-games.com. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
  6. ↑ "Forza Horizon 3". Metacritic. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
  7. ↑ "Metacritic lists Forza Horizon 3 as seventh best reviewed game of 2016 | On MSFT". On MSFT. 22 December 2016. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
  8. ↑ "Playground Games secure a new Leamington Spa office". Retrieved 23 January 2018.
  9. ↑ Batchelor, James (23 November 2017). "Playground Games hires GTA V, Metal Gear Solid and Hellblade devs for open-world action RPG". GamesIndustry.biz.
  10. ↑ "Microsoft buys Ninja Theory, Playground Games, more". Eurogamer. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  11. ↑ "Microsoft Game Studios just added five new studios including Ninja Theory". 10 June 2018. Archived from the original on 10 June 2018. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
  12. ↑ "Microsoft announces Forza Horizon 4 for Xbox One and PC". 10 June 2018. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
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