Lighthouse Games, the AAA Leamington Spa-based studio fashioned in 2022 by Playground Games co-founder and former studio head Gavin Raeburn, has revealed it is creating a “disruptive” driving game and secured further funding from Tencent to make it occur.
CEO Raeburn and publishing director Alex Bertie spoke solely to GamesIndustry.biz about the subsequent steps for the studio.
Whereas it is too quickly to discuss specifics round the game, the intention is to take on Playground’s Forza Horizon sequence – partly as a result of Xbox’s open world driving game has proven simply how excessive the ceiling goes for fulfillment.
“The racing market now could be very wholesome, it is superb, it is doing effectively,” Raeburn says. “However should you take a look at the market, you take a look at Horizon…the variety of individuals I’ve spoken to who’ve performed Horizon who would say, ‘I did not assume I like racing video games, however I really like Horizon’ – it has been massively profitable.
“In the event you take a look at the income incomes of that game now, it beats Gran Turismo, F1, Want for Velocity and The Crew put collectively. That is earlier than Horizon went over to PlayStation. That is huge. I feel what that’s accomplished to the market, although, [is] all the different racing builders are actually copying a lot of that Horizon components.
“So the market is profitable should you’re [developing] an open world game with automobiles, however all these racing sellers are delivering one sort of game. That is the alternative for us to do one thing that could be very completely different and disruptive in the racing market.”
Raeburn does not supply up additional clues on the form of Lighthouse’s first game, solely that whereas it is taking on Horizon, the objective is to innovate.
“I’d say we’re not constructing Horizon. If I wished to construct Horizon 6, 7 and eight, I’d have stayed at Playground. [We] did not need to do this, [we] wished to do one thing new. And that is what we’re doing now.”
The opporunity, then, is available in pondering in a different way about the potential of what a driving game could possibly be.
“I feel what Horizon has proven is that there’s a actual want on behalf of avid gamers to play video games with automobiles,” Raeburn says. “I feel it is simply been an underserved sector of the viewers for, you realize, the final 10-15 years. And I feel Horizon is shaking that up a little bit, and maybe that is why others try to copy the components.
“However once more, that is why we assume there’s room for disruption right here. Individuals need extra experiences. They do not simply need the Horizon expertise, and there is not actually many locations you go. You possibly can go to the indie space of the market. Sure, you could find some video games there. However there are large areas as effectively that we assume we can transfer into to fulfill a latent want for several types of automotive video games.”
Working with Unreal Engine has additionally helped the start-up studio experiment shortly to determine its imaginative and prescient out.
“Simply working with Unreal in contrast to the bespoke engines is a revelation,” Raeburn says. “It is simply so fast. You method it in the proper manner, you set it up effectively – it is one heck of a highly effective instrument. So we’re actually having fun with the creativity that that is helped unleash.”
“I’d say we’re not constructing Horizon. If I wished to construct Horizon 6, 7 and eight, I’d have stayed at Playground.”
Gavin Raeburn, Lighthouse Games
When we spoke to Raeburn in September 2023, the studio had round 30 workers. Now, it is up to 130, with the further funding from Tencent serving to it develop additional.
“The fantastic factor is that 45 of these individuals have adopted me from Playground Games, and Codemasters earlier than [that], they usually’re a few of the greatest individuals I’ve ever labored with. So I am actually happy with that. [We’re at] 130 individuals now. I am in search of round one other 50.”
Raeburn says hiring for the studio has been “remarkably straightforward”. One focus space has been making positive the tradition of the firm is good, with a devoted Ops workforce supporting new hires as soon as they’re on-board.
To construct a cohesive workforce, Lighthouse employed its management first, then employed the individuals beneath them. Raeburn himself tries to get entangled in each single interview.
For a new studio, working with Tencent has introduced Lighthouse a variety of alternatives to assist its pondering round the game.
“Tencent has been a fantastic companion for us, very ahead pondering as a firm,” Raeburn says. “They’re massively supportive of our workforce and the imaginative and prescient for our game. Tencent – Enterprise Lab particularly, that is the assist workforce – has been a nice useful resource to draw upon, serving to form many points of our pondering and go-to-market planning, particularly with analysis and knowledge metrics.
“Their market intelligence, for instance, has been a actual win for us. That is a actual distinctive benefit to have such a broad vary of experience and knowledge, as a result of it permits us to make higher, sooner and extra necessary choices. As a start-up, having entry to that stage of expertise and knowledge, that is been extremely helpful.”
The appropriate companion
The imaginative and prescient behind the game, although, is completely inside the studio’s management. Lighthouse Games continues to be talking to publishers about its debut mission.
“We’re very centered proper now on securing the proper type of publishing partnerships to permit us to carry our imaginative and prescient to market,” says Bertie, who brings years of expertise from EA Sports activities and Codemasters, together with the Formulation One video games.
“That is going at tempo at the second and has most of the studio centered on numerous deliverables to assist us obtain that.
“As soon as we have these partnerships in place, that may give us the proper runway to begin to construct the future roadmap for hiring and that enables us to get the proper individuals in to give you the option to obtain that imaginative and prescient.”
When requested if the present business developments have made securing a publishing deal more difficult, Bertie notes that a key issue is giving publishers confidence that the studio goes to ship a prime quality product with a clear goal market. At a time the place there’s by no means been extra competitors for gamers’ consideration, making that case is a important piece of the puzzle.
“I would not say it is troublesome or straightforward,” Bertie explains. “I feel should you’ve acquired the proper imaginative and prescient, you may at all times discover a companion. We have had a large quantity of curiosity due to the legacy of the founders of the firm, the high quality of the workforce, and the innovation and disruptive potential of what we’re doing right here. So we have no scarcity of curiosity, and we’re in a actually fascinating place proper now.”
Raeburn compares the turbulence of the present second to the business Playground Games got here into 15 years in the past.
“It isn’t too dissimilar to 2010, to be sincere. We fashioned Playground [against] the backdrop of the 2008 crash. All the publishers have been [trying] to get into cellular and anxious about investing in new AAA content material at the time.
“Equally now, the drivers are barely completely different, however there’s alternative inside that for the strongest to survive. In the event you’ve acquired a sturdy workforce and you have got a sturdy imaginative and prescient, you may get all the alternatives to work with the greatest publishers, and that is what we’re discovering.”
Lighthouse is getting into the driving style in a situation that mirrors the founding of Playground Games: there’s one clear long-running market chief to beat. Raeburn has been right here earlier than, solely now he is taking on his personal creation.
“In the event you’ve acquired a sturdy workforce and you have got a sturdy imaginative and prescient, you may get all the alternatives to work with the greatest publishers, and that is what we’re discovering.”
Gavin Raeburn, Lighthouse Games
“I feel the largest fish in the pond actually is Horizon,” Raeburn says when requested which video games the studio checked out for a temperature test on the style. “In order that’s the one which we’re focusing on beating. It is fascinating trying again at the early days, working at Playground. I do know when we signed the take care of Xbox for Horizon, there have been a lot of driving studios round then, however there was one game that dominated the market and that was Want for Velocity. It completely dominated and that was our key competitors.
“In order that was the game that we centered on. We beat it by Horizon 3. I feel this time spherical, there’s one game actually that’s the largest fish in the pond and that is Horizon. That is the game we have to beat.”
Lighthouse Games just isn’t the solely studio with Playground Games pedigree that is recognized a chance to refresh the style – studio Maverick Games, partnered with Amazon, is making a narrative-centric spin on the driving game.
What’s notable, although, is that in the AAA area, the variety of studios really making driving or racing video games stays fairly small. Raeburn sees that as a chance, too.
“I feel what’s fixed is innovation. Are you able to innovate? There’s at all times room for innovation. There’s at all times room for one thing new.
“This is not like the extraction shooter area or first individual shooter area. There will not be many driving studios and while you take a look at the high quality, you assume there’s a actual alternative right here to do one thing completely different.
“That is what’s thrilling to me: there will not be many gamers in our discipline and I do know we can create one thing nice, [that] we can disrupt. That is very thrilling.”