Some of the leaders behind the Forza Horizon series formed a new AAA game studio in Leamington Spa called Maverick Games.
The team is led by studio head and creative director Mike Brown, who was previously the creative director of the Forza Horizon franchise. He is joined by other former Playground veterans, including Executive Producer Tom Butcher, CTO Matt Craven, Director of Content Gareth Harwood and Audio Director Fraser Strachan. Ben Penrose joined the company as Art Director for Sharkmob (but was also a former Playground employee), and Elly Marshall was named Director of UX/UI, following her role as Director of Experience Design at EA.
Running the studio itself is COO Harinder Sangha. Sangha is an award-winning studio leader who helped form Sega Hardlight and Sumo Leamington.
The company currently has ten employees, aiming to grow to 140. And it’s working on a premium AAA open-world game for consoles and PC.
“[In 2021] we shipped Forza Horizon 5, which was a thrill to work on,” said Brown GamesIndustry.biz. “As much as I had an incredible journey on Playground, I was wondering, what’s next? Do I continue with this good and fun work? Or am I looking for other opportunities?
“This opportunity has arisen. I was asked what my vision for a new studio would be… and I was lucky I had an idea in mind.”
Brown says he’s looking to build a studio where risk-taking is encouraged and a culture where staff are encouraged to speak up.
“Games are made in a very specific way that brings real security. We know that if we do these things in a row, we’ll hit that date and the game will come out. I think there are other ways you can still hit that date, but also do a bunch of new things along the way.”
He continues: “It’s a truism that you can be creative or cautious, but you can’t be both. Either you decide to mitigate risk, which limits creativity, or you accept risk, which unlocks creativity. We’re going to build a team where we really encourage them to take creative risks, to try new things, and we really celebrate that as part of our culture.”
Brown says the goal is to create a studio where people are excited to come, and this is where Sangha – a former winner of Best Boss at the GamesIndustry.biz Best Places To Work Awards – comes into play.
“I didn’t want to leave Sumo,” she tells us. “I loved it. I’m really proud of what we did at Leamington.
“But then I met this guy [laughs] and everything changed. He worries about all the things I can’t bring to the table. So what makes this, I think, quite special is that we both bring different things. When we talk developer first, it’s exactly [what Mike was saying], making the games we want to make. But also empower them with the right environment around them. We’ve all been in places that weren’t so great, it’s about putting them in an environment where they’re challenged, where they’re involved in what’s going on, they have a voice, they’re appreciated, they’re valued… all the things that bring out the best in people.”
She continues: “Mike’s challenge is to create a world-class game, and my challenge is to make this a world-class studio.”
Sangha says the studio isn’t here to dictate to employees what they should do, even junior employees. However, there are challenges when it comes to building staff to this level. It sounds fantastic to work for a developer where everyone has a voice and can do what they want, but ultimately a game needs to be made and people will have to agree on a direction.
“There’s an element of successful recruiting to it,” acknowledges Brown. “Everyone has an ego, but that is if it manifests itself in a toxic way. Often the best people are aware of their shortcomings and weaknesses.
“Mike’s challenge is to create a world-class game, and my challenge is to make this a world-class studio”
Harinder Sangha, Maverick
“You can have an ego as long as it is controlled with the appropriate amount of humility. I hope that in our recruitment we can check those egos that can be a toxic force in the team. “
Sangha adds, “We are not afraid to have these conversations. Where is ‘we get your intent here, but this is the result for those around you’. Having these conversations is something that people need to hear because it impacts the rest of the team. It’s being willing to not just say to the rest of the team, ‘Oh, don’t worry about it, because he’s really good.’
Maverick will have an office in Leamington, but Brown says it will take a “modern approach” to hybrid and remote working.
Sangha jokes that finding office space is one of the hardest parts of opening a studio in Leamington. And she would know, having led the Sega Hardlight and Sumo Leamington lineup in the area. Sangha has a reputation for trying to improve diversity within the games business, and that goal will continue at Maverick, she says.
“My aspirations are still… 50/50,” she tells us. “We almost got there with Sumo Leamington, but not quite. But really, sometimes people have to see it to believe it. They have to see that they have a place here. The fact that they can already see it from day one hopefully makes us a more attractive place to start.
“But it’s about all the things we’ve always done. Starting at the grassroots, going to universities, going to schools and making sure that whatever marginalized community you are a part of, you know that there is a place for you in this industry.”
Sangha was initially concerned that the name ‘Maverick’ was too masculine, but after a bit of research realized it was anything but.
“It’s about being rebellious, it’s about changing the way things are. Everything we stood for while we were in our previous places… I want to change the industry. I want to change this for the better. It’s about finding better leaders for the industry, it’s about not tolerating practices that already exist in the past and inspiring those around us. People come and go. If they come and do brilliant things with us and go on to something bigger and better, they continue with our blessing. And they continue these best practices, and that will contribute to a better industry.”
The studio’s name initially came from Brown’s time in the Playground.
“It’s a word that came up in my performance reviews,” says Brown. “Not necessarily positively [laughs]. But I thought there was something really positive about it actually. And when I talk about throwing caution to the wind, encouraging people to take risks, to challenge assumptions and not just do something because we’ve always done it that way… that’s dissident. And that’s something we encourage our entire team to do. Don’t be boxed in by rules that may not even be real.”
Maverick Games breaks cover in an anxious moment for the world. Rising inflation mixed with a recession has created an uncertain environment, with investment beginning to slow in many sectors. Some of the big game studios have also temporarily stopped recruiting. Brown is optimistic, however.
“The team we have, the set-up we have, gives us confidence and security,” he says. “I have no worries about it, just enthusiasm.”
The company was backed by a London investor and has the funds it needs, Sangha and Brown insist.
“With the world you are in… [job seekers] might be a little worried,” Sangha tells us. “But there is stability here.”
The studio isn’t ready to talk about the game it’s making, but it’s not necessarily a driving game, despite the team’s heritage.
“I would definitely describe myself as an open world guy first, rather than a driving guy,” jokes Brown. “The game will be open world, it will be AAA, it will be premium, it will have the ambition to go on and win all the awards…”
Brown also suggests that the game will react to the way gamers are consuming entertainment these days, partially driven by the rise of subscription services. It’s something he’ll know all too well after developing some of the most popular games on Xbox Game Pass.
“What [subscription] does for us as game makers, it causes a real fight for players’ attention”
Mike Brown, Maverick
“What [subscription] does for us as game makers, it causes a real fight for players’ attention. Because their commitment to you is just to click download. They didn’t have to drive to a store or pay extra… or when I was a kid and had to save up three months to buy an N64 game.
“Even with the games on the Steam Sale…you can buy games so cheap and try them out and only pay £1.50, then you can jump straight to the next game. All of this means that games really need to be built in a way that sells in the first few seconds.
“In addition to opening the game, which needs to be spectacular, you need to [keep doing it] every time they play. Because you’re always in this fight for that attention.”
Brown says games need to be built thinking about how “people expect to be entertained today”.
“I saw a statistic that the average time spent watching a TikTok video is three seconds. It’s hard to build a game for a three-second attention span. It’s probably impossible. But that access to entertainment, that access to the fun that people have… games have to compete. So we need to build our games where we’re always approaching each player, always giving them something to do, never letting them get to that point in a game where it’s going to repeat for 15 hours until the credits roll.
While Brown is looking to build a game that fits the next generation of gamers, Sangha’s task is to create a modern studio without the advantages and disadvantages of being part of a larger organization.
“Sega Hardlight and Sumo Leamington were blank sheets of paper,” she concludes. “And being part of a larger organization like Sega and Sumo, there was already a lot of stuff there. But this is a blank notebook. It’s all those things where I say ‘if it didn’t exist, I could do this differently’.
“[Laughing] Let’s hope I don’t screw up.
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