{"id":465122,"date":"2025-11-10T20:01:40","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T20:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/playground-games-co-founder-leaving-forza-horizon-5-studio-after-12-years\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T20:01:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T20:01:40","slug":"playground-games-co-founder-leaving-forza-horizon-5-studio-after-12-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/playground-games-co-founder-leaving-forza-horizon-5-studio-after-12-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Playground Games Co-Founder Leaving Forza Horizon 5 Studio After 12 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Studio director and co-founder of Playground Games, Gavin Raeburn, has revealed that he\u2019s leaving the company. <\/p>\n

First reported by Windows Central<\/a>, he has revealed that after co-founding and working at Playground for 12 years, he\u2019s retiring from the racetrack. This news comes two months after the studio put out its most successful title yet in Forza Horizon 5, which at the time of its release, also had the biggest launch of any Xbox Game Studios game ever<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Click here to watch embedded media<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 12 years working on five award-winning Forza Horizon games, Gavin Raeburn is leaving Playground Games as studio director,\u201d Turn 10 Studio Head and Forza franchise lead Alan Hartman told Windows Central<\/em>. \u201cA founding member of Playground Games, we thank Gav for his leadership and contributions to the Forza franchise and wish him all the best.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hartman said another Playground co-founder, Trevor Williams, will transition from General Manager to Studio Head effective immediately, replacing Raeburn. He also said the studio will continue to focus on updates to Forza Horizon 5<\/a> and the ongoing development of its Fable reboot, which was officially announced in 2020<\/a>. <\/p>\n

As noted by Windows Central<\/em>, Raeburn has quite the history in the racing genre, having worked on Codemasters\u2019 TOCA series, Dirt, and Grid. He left Codemasters in 2009 to create Playground Games, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2018<\/a>. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s no word on what\u2019s next for Raeburn or if he\u2019s even staying in games. <\/p>\n

For more about Forza Horizon 5, check out our thoughts on it in Game Informer\u2019s<\/em> Forza Horizon 5 review<\/a>, and then read about why it\u2019s on Game Informer\u2019s<\/em> Top 10 Xbox Series X games list<\/a>. Check out this new Xbox and OPI nail polish collaboration that unlocks a unique Forza Horizon 5 car wrap<\/a> after that. <\/p>\n

[Source: Windows Central<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Are you excited to see what\u2019s next for Playground Games? What do you hope to see in its Fable reboot? Let us know in the comments below!<\/em><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Studio director and co-founder of Playground Games, Gavin Raeburn, has revealed that he\u2019s leaving the company.  First reported by Windows Central, he has revealed that after co-founding and working at Playground for 12 years, he\u2019s retiring from the racetrack. This news comes two months after the studio put out its most successful title yet in Forza Horizon 5, which at the time of its release, also had the biggest launch of any Xbox Game Studios game ever.  Click here to watch embedded media \u201cAfter 12 years working on five award-winning Forza Horizon games, Gavin Raeburn is leaving Playground Games as studio director,\u201d Turn 10 Studio Head and Forza franchise lead Alan Hartman told Windows Central. \u201cA founding member of Playground Games, we thank Gav for his leadership and…<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":465123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-465122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-informer"],"yoast_head":"\nPlayground Games Co-Founder Leaving Forza Horizon 5 Studio After 12 Years | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Studio director and co-founder of Playground Games, Gavin Raeburn, has revealed that he\u2019s leaving the company.  First reported by Windows\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/playground-games-co-founder-leaving-forza-horizon-5-studio-after-12-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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