Playground Games’ former creative director Mike Brown has formed a new AAA studio called Maverick Games, which is working on a premium AAA open-world game for consoles and PCs with ambitions to “win all the awards.”
If you have enjoyed blasting across the gorgeous landscapes of Mexico to earn the Forza Horizon 5 achievements, you might want to keep an eye out on the newly formed AAA studio, Maverick Games, from former Playground Games creative director Mike Brown.
Maverick Games packs in talent from Playground Games, EA, Sumo Digital Leamington, and more
Maverick Games sees Mike Brown step into the roles of creative director and studio head, with former Sumo Digital Leamington co-studio head Harinder Sangha taking on the responsibilities of COO. The pair’s leadership team contains former Playground Games lead producer Tom Butcher as executive producer, Sharkmob London’s Ben Penrose as art director, former EA experience design director Elly Marshall as UX/UI director, Matt Craven as CTO, Gareth Harwood as content director, and Fraser Strachan as audio director.
The studio currently has ten members of staff on the team but is looking to grow to 140-strong as it continues to work on a new AAA open-world game for consoles and PC. According to Brown when speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, the team has ambitions for its game to “win all the awards,” and will potentially react to the changing entertainment landscape with the rise of subscription services.
“I saw a stat that the average time spent watching a TikTok video is three seconds. It’s hard to build a game for an attention span of three seconds. It’s probably impossible. But that access to entertainment, that access to the fun that people have… games need to compete,” Brown said. “So, we need to build our games where we are always addressing every player, always giving them something to do, never letting them get to that bit in a game where it’s just going to repeat for 15 hours until you get to the credits.”
We think Forza Horizon 5 is one of the best games on Game Pass, so you should definitely check it out if you haven’t already, but for now, we’d love to know your thoughts on Maverick Games. Drop a comment below and let us know!
