Is Forza Horizon About To Face Its Toughest Rivals Yet?

Forza Horizon’s co-founder just unveiled a new studio, Lighthouse Games, aiming to build a “disruptive” racing game to rival the series he helped create.

When former co-founder Gavin Raeburn says “that’s the game we have to beat” about Forza Horizon, it proves he intends to compete with his hugely successful creation, while knowing exactly how it works and where it falls short.

Talent That’ll Worry Microsoft

Raeburn explained to gamesindustry.biz that Lighthouse has now assembled 130 developers, with around 45 coming directly from Playground Games and Codemasters. That’s a huge chunk of ex-Playground talent.

In the meantime, they also secured a significant investment. Chinese gaming giant Tencent is backing the studio, which should hopefully allow the team to take risks on fresh ideas.

Unlike other established franchises that need to keep existing players (and stakeholders) happy, this should allow Lighthouse an opportunity to experiment with a unique approach. Something that might have been impossible under Microsoft.

The Reasons Behind The Switch

Despite Horizon’s massive success, making more money than “Gran Turismo, F1, Need For Speed and The Crew put together” (and then some with its recent PS5 release), Raeburn sees a problem.

He believes everyone is copying the Horizon formula, and racing games are starting to feel the same, even if some aren’t doing it quite so well!

After over a decade making the same festival-style racing games, it appears that Raeburn and his team needed a change of direction with more freedom to do what they truly want.

His talk about exploring “huge areas” for “different types of car games” suggests they felt stuck doing the same thing over and over with Horizon.

If this is the case, a substantial number of fans have expressed the same sentiment on social media platforms. Many believe that the Horizon games are becoming less enjoyable with every new release.

What’s The ‘Disruptive’ Plan?

Lighthouse doesn’t intend to make a direct rival. Raeburn states, “I would say we’re not building Horizon. If I wanted to build Horizon 6, 7 and 8, I would have stayed at Playground” followed by “[we] wanted to do something new. And that’s what we’re doing now.”

What makes this especially interesting is that Microsoft recently stated they’re working on “the next Forza” without specifically clarifying that it’s Forza Horizon 6, as many expected.

There were also already plenty of rumors floating around that FH6 would be the last Horizon game long before this. There’s also something else to consider…

Lighthouse Isn’t The Only Competition

While Playground Games may have already seen the competition brewing with the past employees heading to Lighthouse, they shouldn’t be their only concern.

There’s also another new open-world offering in the works from Horizon’s former creative director, Mike Brown. 

Brown, combined with the core team from Horizon 4 and 5, recently formed Maverick Games. This likely made Microsoft and Playground Games realize the Forza series needs a shakeup earlier than intended.

With only vague hints about the next Forza coming rather than explicit Horizon 6 announcements, could Microsoft already be pivoting to counter the potential competition?

Meanwhile, despite trying, competitors like The Crew Motorfest have struggled to differentiate themselves in the market, even with the lack of fresh content from Forza Horizon 5.

If they can get the ball rolling soon, it could be the perfect time to drop something genuinely fresh and innovative for players who are ready for something different.

What This Means For Horizon’s Future

There’s no question that Forza Horizon’s dominance in the market to date has been impressive. However, the planned offerings from both Lighthouse and Maverick Games could pose a real challenge for the series.

These are the creators who built Horizon from the ground up to its peak (if we’re looking at player satisfaction rather than sales figures). They’re now keen and motivated to take things to the next level.

This could force Playground Games to rethink their approach, if they aren’t already doing so with whatever is in store for Forza next, assuming it isn’t Horizon 6.

Whether Lighthouse can deliver on its “disruptive” promise remains to be seen. Still, it’s great to see some proven competition enter the market that undoubtedly knows what it’s doing, paired with serious financial backing. 

We have yet to receive further details or release dates for either project, but we do know that “the next Forza” is due to arrive in 2026.

For the first time in years, Forza Horizon finally appears to have some decent competition, and we sure hope they all have plenty of drifting on offer!