Maverick Games, a UK studio formed in 2022 primarily by former members of the Forza Horizon team at Playground Games, have been working on their first project for a little while now. Today, Amazon Games announced it would publish that first title from the Maverick Games team.
In a press release, Amazon says the game, which does not yet have a title, will be a "narrative-led, open-world driving game." It will be released for the PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S platforms. A release date has yet to be revealed.
In a separate interview, Maverick Games’ studio head and creative director, Mike Brown, who previously worked at Playground Games as the creative director for Forza Horizon 5, offered up a little more info on what could be a very different type of driving game experience:
"Lots of great driving games have amazing gameplay, amazing content,” said Brown. “But to really cross that bridge, to become a game that people genuinely love, then there needs to be that human connection where you’re actually rooting for these characters, falling in love with these characters. That, I think, is a place where our game will be able to really differentiate itself from the other titles in the genre. There’s nothing about this genre that prevents it from having amazing characters and amazing stories — it’s just not really been explored yet.”
The UK-based Maverick Games currently has 62 team members, many of which have worked on the Forza Horizon games but also on titles like Sea of Thieves, Cyberpunk 2077, Call of Duty, and others. In addition, the studio has hired Jamie Brittain, best known as the co-creator of the controversial UK TV show Skins, to be the lead writer for the narrative racing game.
Amazon Games recently announced the launch of a new in-house development studio in Bucharest, Romania, that will help support the company"s current and future games lineup.