Forza Horizon is, without a doubt, one of the largest franchises that Microsoft has today. After some fantastic installments on Xbox One, Palyground Games has once again offered an almost perfect title with Forza Horizon 5, even managing to surpass the base saga, Forza Motrosport in popularity.
For this very reason, the studio’s fans will be a bit heartbroken, as it has been announced that the co-founder of Playground Games leaves the studio after more than 12 years in the same. We have learned the news thanks to the people of WindowsCentral, who has reported that Gavin Raeburn will be leaving his position at the company.
Playground Games co-founder leaves studio
The announcement was made jointly by Microsoft and Playground Games, which also served to confirm who will occupy the position of Raeburn. The general manager and co-founder of the partners, Trevor Williams will take over as studio head in place of Raeburn. Forza and Fable’s Microsoft CVP Alan Hartman shared the following message with us.
After 12 years working on five award-winning Forza Horizon games, Gavin Raeburn is leaving Playground Games as Studio Director. As a founding member of Playground Games, we thank Gav for his leadership and contributions to the Forza franchise and wish him all the best. Co-founder Trevor Williams will move from General Manager to Head of Studio effective immediately as the Playground Games team focuses on Forza Horizon 5 updates and Fable development.
Gavin Raeburn is something of an industry legend, having worked on cult classics like The Equalizer for the Commodore 64, right up to the Codemasters TOCA Championship, DiRT and GRID. Raeburn left Codemasters to co-found Playground Games in 2009, building what has since become one of Microsoft’s largest studios.
For now it is unknown what the fate of the developer will be, but it is likely that in the coming months we will know something more about it.