Hartman revealed Raeburn’s departure from Playground Games in a statement given to Windows Central: “After 12 years working on five award-winning Forza Horizon games, Gavin Raeburn is leaving Playground Games as Studio Director. A founding member of Playground Games, we thank Gav for his leadership and contributions to the Forza franchise and wish him all the best.”
With Playground Games focusing on updates for Forza Horizon 5 and the development of Fable, Hartman also announced that studio co-founder and current general manager Trevor Williams will transition to studio head “effective immediately.”
Gavin Raeburn has been a part of the video game industry for years, having spent 24 years at Codemasters, working on popular series such as F1, Dirt, Grid, and more. He left Codemasters to co-found Playground Games in 2009, where he helped create and ship five Forza Horizon titles. Raeburn hasn’t revealed what he’ll be doing next.
Playground Games’ latest release, Forza Horizon 5, was received well by both fans and critics alike. FH5 made it to the final of our bracketed GOTY vote, where it lost to Halo Infinite by 200 votes.
