Playground Games Limited is a British video game developer based in Leamington Spa, England. It is known for developing the Forza Horizon series, which is part of the larger Forza franchise. In 2018, Playground Games became part of Microsoft Studios. They are also currently in development of the next game in the iconic Fable series.
History
Playground Games was founded by Trevor Williams and Nick Wheelwright; the studio was announced in November 2009, with its opening scheduled for early 2010. Prior to Playground Games, Williams had founded Swordfish Studios, which, after changing hands multiple times, was merged with Codemasters, the company Wheelwright was chief executive officer of. In May 2010, Playground Games was accused of poaching employees from Codemasters, so to give itself a head start of one year on the development on their games. Playground Games announced their first project, Forza Horizon, in 2012. The title was developed in collaboration with Turn 10 Studios and published by MicrosoftStudios for Xbox 360 in October that year. The studio released Forza Horizon 2 on Xbox 360 and Xbox Onein September 2014, and Forza Horizon 3 on Xbox One and Microsoft Windows in September 2016. In February 2014, Playground Games announced that they were forming a new development team focused on mobile games. In February 2017, the studio detailed plans to open a second studio, focusing on a non-racing open-world video game project. In November, they announced they had leased St. Albans House in Leamington Spa, which would provide the new studio with more than 17,000 square feet of office space. Expected headcounts for both studios were in excess of 200 people. At E3 2018, Microsoft announced they had acquired Playground Games, which became part of Microsoft Studios. At the same time, Microsoft Studios also announced Forza Horizon 4, which would be released on 2 October 2018, and that the studio was working on an unannounced AAA Open-World Action RPG project, later revealed to be in the Fable franchise
