New game development studio, Lighthouse Games, has been formed by Playground co-founder Gavin Raeburn. The team is now working on their debut AAA title.

Lighthouse Games is a new AAA studio formed by Playground developers

Image source: Lighthouse Games

Raeburn and the team announced the opening of Lighthouse Games on March 27. According to its official website, the studio has an ambition to “create a new, genre-defining franchise.”

Lighthouse’s debut game will be a AAA title based on a new IP, but other details about the project remain undisclosed. “People should be looking at Lighthouse expecting that we’ll be producing something highly polished and technologically ambitious,” Raeburn told GamesIndustry.biz. “That’s exactly our ambition, and the heritage of our team makes that possible.”

The studio currently consists of 30 people, including key founding members of Playground Games. Raeburn, who previously served as the studio director of Playground and oversaw the development of the Forza Horizon series, is the CEO of the new company.

Other team members include:

  • Development director Andy Ward, who previously worked as production director at Playground and senior producer at Ubisoft;
  • Creative director Jon Davis Hunt, former senior designer at Codemasters and lead designer at Playground;
  • Technical art director Pete Ridgway, who previously worked at Codemasters, Rare, and King;
  • Principal game designer Ben Thaker Fell, who worked at similar positions at Codemasters and Playground;
  • HR director Annie Clare, who has experience of working with PlayStation and Epic Games.

Lighthouse is not the first studio formed by Forza developers. Earlier this year, another group of Playground veterans founded Maverick Games. It is also working on a AAA game for PC and consoles.

Who is Gavin Raeburn?

  • Raeburn started his gamedev journey in 1986, when he joined Codemasters as a freelance programmer.
  • His video game credits include franchises like DiRT, Pro Tennis Simulator, GRID, and Forza Horizon.
  • After more than 24 years at Codemasters, he joined Trevor Williams and Ralph Fulton to form Playground Games where he served as CEO and studio director.
  • Raeburn helped the company ship all the games in the Forza Horizon series, including its latest fifth installment.