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Playground co-founder Raeburn is leaving the studio

Playground co-founder Raeburn is leaving the studio

The co-founder of Forza Horizon maker Playground Games, Gavin Raeburn, is leaving the developer.

As reported by Windows Central, the studio director is departing after 12 years. He is being replaced by fellow co-founder and GM Trevor Williams as studio head. There's no indication where Raeburn is headed to next. 

"After 12 years working on five award-winning Forza Horizon games, Gavin Raeburn is leaving Playground Games as Studio Director," Microsoft's CVP of Forza and Fable, Alan Hartman said.

"A founding member of Playground Games, we thank Gav for his leadership and contributions to the Forza franchise and wish him all the best. Co-founder Trevor Williams will transition from General Manager to Studio Head effective immediately, as the Playground Games team focuses on updates to Forza Horizon 5 and the development of Fable."

Prior to his 12 years at Playground, Raeburn spent a whopping 24 years at racing specialist Codemasters where he worked on the likes of Dirt, Grid and the F1 franchise. While it's best known for the Forza Horizon racing franchise, the studio is currently still working on a new entry in the Fable franchise

Forza Horizon 5 launched on November 9th, 2021 and brought in over 4.5 million players within its first day in the wild.

Playground was acquired by Microsoft back in 2018.


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PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.