Amazon secures open-world driving game from former Forza Horizon devs

Amazon Games has announced a publishing deal with Maverick Games for a new driving game from former Forza Horizon developers.

The unannounced game will be a narrative-led open-world driving game for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Maverick Games was founded in 2022 by several of the core team behind the critically acclaimed open-world racing game series Forza Horizon, including studio head and creative director Mike Brown, former creative director of the Forza Horizon franchise.

“We founded Maverick Games with a clear vision: to build a developer-first studio that would foster an environment of creativity and risk-taking,” said Brown.

“This approach empowers our team to produce the most exceptional work of their careers. And ultimately, that means we are creating a game that our players are going to fall in love with. 

“Without giving too much away, I will share that the team here is buzzing with excitement about our game and we can’t wait to share it with the world.”

The game will be written by Jamie Brittian, co-creator of the British TV show Skins.

Other developers include executive producer Tom Butcher (Forza Horizon Series, F1 All-Stars), CTO Matt Craven (Forza Horizon Series, GRID, DIRT), content director Gareth Harwood (Forza Horizon Series, Fable reboot), audio director Fraser Strachan (Forza Horizon Series), art director Ben Penrose (Forza Horizon Series, Fable reboot) and Visual Design Director Elly Marshall (Forza Horizon 3, Just Cause 3, DIRT).

The team working on Maverick is currently made up of 62 developers, and the studio plans to hire more as development continues.

“We talk about trust a lot and we are extremely transparent with our team,” said boss Mike Brown, speaking on the company culture at Maverick. “Once you have trust, that allows you to build from there and bring in the other parts of our culture, such as unbridled creativity and empowering our staff to take risks.”