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The developers of Forza Horizon and Fable at Xbox appear to be getting a third studio, but for what?

Playground Games appears to have opened a third studio as the company continues to work on Fable and the Forza Horizon franchise.

www.windowscentral.com

What you need to know​

• Playground Games is the studio behind the massively popular Forza Horizon franchise.
• Playground Games expanded by opening a second studio in 2017, before then being acquired by Microsoft in 2018.
• Playground Games is also working on a new Fable game, which is slated to arrive at some point in 2025.
• According to an update on Playground Games' LinkedIn page, the team has expanded to three studios.

"Today, Playground has three world-class studios in Leamington Spa," the company description reads. "In our original HQ, we continue to support and grow the huge, vibrant Horizon community. In our new studios on the other side of town, we are excited to be developing Fable, a new beginning for the legendary franchise."

 

[SlimySnake]

Wow. So they have been working on a new Horizon game since 2021?

i wonder why they havent revealed it yet. It typically used to take 3 years to develop and release. We are almost 3 years in and not even a reveal?

 

[adamsapple]

Wow. So they have been working on a new Horizon game since 2021?

i wonder why they havent revealed it yet. It typically used to take 3 years to develop and release. We are almost 3 years in and not even a reveal?

I don't see anything like that mentioned in the article .. ?

They've probably got both their current studios working on Fable, this third one has just been christened, they are probably just a small support caliber studio at this point.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

the output it's going to be wery interesting...

 

[SlimySnake]

I don't see anything like that mentioned in the article .. ?

They've probably got both their current studios working on Fable, this third one has just been christened, they are probably just a small support caliber studio at this point.

It's the quote in your OP.

"Today, Playground has three world-class studios in Leamington Spa," the company description reads. "In our original HQ, we continue to support and grow the huge, vibrant Horizon community. In our new studios on the other side of town, we are excited to be developing Fable, a new beginning for the legendary franchise."

Clearly, their original studio is working on Horizon while the new studio is working on fable.

 

[CamHostage]

Hmm, a company opening a studio rather than shutting one down? What a concept!

 

[Loomy]

Nice. Hopefully more jobs coming out of it.

 

[Diddy X]

Top tier studios.

 

[NuclearDiarrhea]

Hopefully, the purpose of this new studio is to fix the chin of the female protagonist in Fable.

 

[U n i o n 0015]

Well, it's not hard to copy/paste the same game and over.

 

[nemiroff]

Edit: Never mind

 

[Kuranghi]

I would like FH6 to work properly on PC at launch and not be boring as fuck singleplayer. I can't believe that game was lauded, the graphics were ace (when they worked on PC, still some stuff broken) and the scripted missions were cool but that was like an hour of the game, after that I drove around and tried to find the lost cars and it was so rote.

 

[Outlier]

I see future studio shut down...
They get too big, the games start to suck, then the weight loss begins.

 

[Isa]

Somehow MS couldn't save the scratch a few months to pay the bills for Tango and instead went for Playground again? Man they've lost me bigtime.

 

[Topher]

Edit: Never mind

I saw what you posted. You've got some nerve.

i'm just messing man

 

[nemiroff]

I saw what you posted. You've got some nerve.

i'm just messing man

I know. I like you bro. Anyway, I'm a little paranoid about sharing details from my work, so sometimes it can result in an immediate rollback

 

[Topher]

I know. I like you bro. Anyway, I'm a little paranoid about sharing about my work, so sometimes it can result in an immediate rollback

lol....no worries man. I actually have no idea what you posted.

Like you as well my bro.

 

[nemiroff]

lol....no worries man. I actually have no idea what you posted.

Damn you, asshole!

 

[Topher]

Damn you, asshole!

 

[SoloCamo]

About the only franchise MS hasn't ruined at this point. I miss Bizzare Creations who did the original Project Gotham Racing games (PGR2 is still the GOAT arcade racer) but from my understanding a lot of that team moved to the Forza studio. That said, considering how bad they screwed up the latest regular Forza Motorsport I'm quite worried.

Either way, I've got 413 hours into Forza Horizon 5 and will be playing again tonight.. One of the only pre order games I don't regret and I've got my money's worth. Looking forward to Horizon 6.

I would like FH6 to work properly on PC at launch and not be boring as fuck singleplayer. I can't believe that game was lauded, the graphics were ace (when they worked on PC, still some stuff broken) and the scripted missions were cool but that was like an hour of the game, after that I drove around and tried to find the lost cars and it was so rote.

The launch had a few issues (especially if your pc was subpar) but it's been rock solid for me pretty much since day one. What is broken at this point near 3 years later?

 

[clarky]

The launch had a few issues (especially if your pc was subpar) but it's been rock solid for me pretty much since day one. What is broken at this point near 3 years later?

Same. No idea what he's on about. Game looks fantastic and runs like a champ.

 

[Kuranghi]

About the only franchise MS hasn't ruined at this point. I miss Bizzare Creations who did the original Project Gotham Racing games (PGR2 is still the GOAT arcade racer) but from my understanding a lot of that team moved to the Forza studio. That said, considering how bad they screwed up the latest regular Forza Motorsport I'm quite worried.

Either way, I've got 413 hours into Forza Horizon 5 and will be playing again tonight.. One of the only pre order games I don't regret and I've got my money's worth. Looking forward to Horizon 6.



The launch had a few issues (especially if your pc was subpar) but it's been rock solid for me pretty much since day one. What is broken at this point near 3 years later?

I think it was called the environmental world textures setting or something like that, Very High was broken and looked like Low and Ultra used too much VRAM (gave a pop up every 30 seconds or so) for 8GB GPUs, so I had to use High which was visibly blurry and disappointing at native 4K on my TV.

I also got random stutters for no reason no matter my settings, maybe they fixed it eventually but i went back after a month or so and it was the same as launch. I had a quick look at the subreddit 3-4 months later and someone was still complaining about it not being fixed.

I also had the worst time ever trying to install it via the windows/Xbox app store thingie, like crashed or wouldn't download and then buttons greyed out like I didn't own it, not saying that issue was unique to FH5 but it was my experience.

Nowadays I have less patience for PC games with broken settings or stuttering/framepacing issues for more than a couple of weeks past launch. Kena was the same, just absolutely fucked on PC at launch, DX11 had drawcall stutters but allowed FSE, while DX12 had no drawcall stutters but no FSE so had the usual stutters from that and insane input lag. It also had sharpening forced to 3.0 (lol insane, even 1.0 is too high for most games) and so had very awful ringing artifacts no matter the res and I had to install freaking UUU and do commandline edits at every launch to disable that.

Slight tangent there, sorry ha. Anyway my experience of FH5 was marred in the above ways.

 

[Darsxx82]

Wow. So they have been working on a new Horizon game since 2021?

i wonder why they havent revealed it yet. It typically used to take 3 years to develop and release. We are almost 3 years in and not even a reveal?

I continue to be surprised by the number of people who were unaware of the PLAYGROUND situation.

-From the first moment it was announced and made clear that a new Studio was being created for Fable, independent and even in a different building.

-Most of the original Forza Horizon bosses moved to the project and new Studio for Fable.

-FH5 was created by a new group successfully (in the middle of COVID in 3 years). Part of that group broke away from PG and has created a new independent Studio (Mavericks Games).

-Forza Horizon 6 has been in development since 2021. In October 2024 it will take 4 years of development. -Studio Fable is where most of the original FH developers are located. The development of Fable is supported by Eidos Montreal.

-This third Studio was unknown until now. Maybe it's a support Studio, a project incubation Studio or a new independent one?..... We'll see in the future.

 

[SoloCamo]

I think it was called the environmental world textures setting or something like that, Very High was broken and looked like Low and Ultra used too much VRAM (gave a pop up every 30 seconds or so) for 8GB GPUs, so I had to use High which was visibly blurry and disappointing at native 4K on my TV.

I also got random stutters for no reason no matter my settings, maybe they fixed it eventually but i went back after a month or so and it was the same as launch. I had a quick look at the subreddit 3-4 months later and someone was still complaining about it not being fixed.

I also had the worst time ever trying to install it via the windows/Xbox app store thingie, like crashed or wouldn't download and then buttons greyed out like I didn't own it, not saying that issue was unique to FH5 but it was my experience.

Nowadays I have less patience for PC games with broken settings or stuttering/framepacing issues for more than a couple of weeks past launch. Kena was the same, just absolutely fucked on PC at launch, DX11 had drawcall stutters but allowed FSE, while DX12 had no drawcall stutters but no FSE so had the usual stutters from that and insane input lag. It also had sharpening forced to 3.0 (lol insane, even 1.0 is too high for most games) and so had very awful ringing artifacts no matter the res and I had to install freaking UUU and do commandline edits at every launch to disable that.

Slight tangent there, sorry ha. Anyway my experience of FH5 was marred in the above ways.

Yea, the texture issue was a legit problem at launch, I've played it maxed out at 4k on 16gb 6900XT since launch but I do remember 8gb gpu's having issues. Stutters were more than likely related to vram issues as well as I never experienced them.

Honestly at this point unless it's best to wait for pc games a bit anyways, you end up getting them cheaper and in a more polished state.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Topher , nemiroff

 

[Ozriel]

Well, it's not hard to copy/paste the same game and over.

Yes, the upcoming Fable game is a clone of Forza Horizon 5

 

[CamHostage]

I see future studio shut down...
They get too big, the games start to suck, then the weight loss begins.

If they can keep up the project juggling where they have multiple franchises at a time and all the tech work helps the full consortium advance, I think this would be the opposite of "too big"; it'd be "room to grow"...

Having four studios now working with Forza Tech is a sign of faith in the tools (albeit the recent proper Forza did not take things to the next level as hoped/promised; FH5 and its DLC was amazing though, and that's important particularly with Playground expanding.) UE5 is big at MS (and they also have id's current engine, but id is seemingly done offering middleware,) but if Forza tools could grow to be the Xbox equivalent of Decima, it'd be good to have those options and experimental tech against the mainstream offerings.

Also, the way Playground has juggled FH and Fable jobs looks to have been productive in old-school A/B production management that too few studio organizations are capable these days. If Fable or FH6 are both good, that's a powerful machine they will have up and running.

 

[xrnzaaas]

I see future studio shut down...
They get too big, the games start to suck, then the weight loss begins.

In my opinion they've made a mistake with postponing Forza Horizon 6 to focus on working on Fable. The series is one of few big hits for Microsoft, but almost 3 years later people are starting to get seriously fatigued playing on the same maps in FH5, even with all the updates it's constantly getting.

 

[Negotiator101]

Hmm, a company opening a studio rather than shutting one down? What a concept!

Well that depends on the quality of their output and success, playground have both in abundance hence they're growing.

 

[Negotiator101]

In my opinion they've made a mistake with postponing Forza Horizon 6 to focus on working on Fable. The series is one of few big hits for Microsoft, but almost 3 years later people are starting to get seriously fatigued playing on the same maps in FH5, even with all the updates it's constantly getting.

I think you'll be happier with the next installment if they've used the extra time wisely to actually shake up the Horizon formula.

 

[TheRedRiders]

Leamington Spa? Dam, that's pretty close to home.

 

[AnotherXOne]

Playground > tango
Not even once, I’d rather have 100 more forza horizon titles.

 

[AnotherXOne]

Somehow MS couldn't save the scratch a few months to pay the bills for Tango and instead went for Playground again? Man they've lost me bigtime.

Their cost cutting moves weren’t cost cutting, they were moving money around to more established studios.

Idk though tango made flop after flop but Playground games are the goats.

 

[AnotherXOne]

In my opinion they've made a mistake with postponing Forza Horizon 6 to focus on working on Fable. The series is one of few big hits for Microsoft, but almost 3 years later people are starting to get seriously fatigued playing on the same maps in FH5, even with all the updates it's constantly getting.

Gives the next game more hype to build upon. Though it will probably be made when they decide all ms titles go multiplat and Xbox hardware becomes more pc like with other stores like EGS and steam.

It will probably be a 2026 launch title for the Xbox handheld and all digital console cloud hybrid device.

 

[AnotherXOne]

About the only franchise MS hasn't ruined at this point. I miss Bizzare Creations who did the original Project Gotham Racing games (PGR2 is still the GOAT arcade racer) but from my understanding a lot of that team moved to the Forza studio. That said, considering how bad they screwed up the latest regular Forza Motorsport I'm quite worried.

Either way, I've got 413 hours into Forza Horizon 5 and will be playing again tonight.. One of the only pre order games I don't regret and I've got my money's worth. Looking forward to Horizon 6.



The launch had a few issues (especially if your pc was subpar) but it's been rock solid for me pretty much since day one. What is broken at this point near 3 years later?

Forza motorsport is all turn 10. Playground only works on forza horizon and those games never miss.

Also maverick games looks like is is bound to fail, they are publishing with Amazon games and all the games Amazon touches turns into ash.

 

[Kokoloko85]

Thats how you expand your studios

 

[Ozriel]

In my opinion they've made a mistake with postponing Forza Horizon 6 to focus on working on Fable. The series is one of few big hits for Microsoft, but almost 3 years later people are starting to get seriously fatigued playing on the same maps in FH5, even with all the updates it's constantly getting.

They’ve expanded to multiple teams just so they don’t have to sacrifice FH to make Fable.

People have been demanding they freshen up the formula. You don’t get that without taking some more time to make changes.

Somehow MS couldn't save the scratch a few months to pay the bills for Tango and instead went for Playground again? Man they've lost me bigtime.

This doesn’t make sense at all.

 

[Frwrd]

Hopefully, the purpose of this new studio is to fix the chin of the female protagonist in Fable.

Did you just assume they/them/its gender !?

 

[AnotherXOne]

Did you just assume they/them/its gender !?

It is a comfirmed she, from the trailers. I get thr joke.

 

[Heisenberg007]

It's the quote in your OP.


Clearly, their original studio is working on Horizon while the new studio is working on fable.

Not necessarily. Possible that the majority of studio shifted to Fable after shipping Horizon 5. And now shifting back to Horizon 6 as Fable nears completion.

 

[Del_X]

Buying Activision probably made gaming a big enough item on their balance sheet that they're actually managing it like you would anything. Double down on their winners (Playground) and fade the losers (343, see the management turnover that finally happened). They do this with their other divisions and this is also what Activision does.

 

[AnotherXOne]

Buying Activision probably made gaming a big enough item on their balance sheet that they're actually managing it like you would anything

Sataya probably wants actual big returns on xbox now, I think he has had enough of phil spencers tomfoolery.

Also I do not get xbox mega fans. I have an xbox one s it is ok but these guys act as if it is their bread and butter and their livelyhoods. It is weird to see some of the comments on twitter and even on this fourm acting as if they had a divorce.

I hope the next xbox has other stores like epic games would buy it. I switched to a pc gaming handheld (rog ally) this generation but I would be very intrested in an xbox stlyed handhled device.

 

[xrnzaaas]

I think you'll be happier with the next installment if they've used the extra time wisely to actually shake up the Horizon formula.

Let's wait and see if the mechanics are truly made from the ground up and full of innovations. I doubt it.

 

[Hudo]

Do we know where the next Horizon is set in?

 

[adamsapple]

Not necessarily. Possible that the majority of studio shifted to Fable after shipping Horizon 5. And now shifting back to Horizon 6 as Fable nears completion.

Yeah, that's what I think as well.

When their third studio is fully staffed, up and running, then they might become a 2-project-at-once studio.