Playground Games recruits ex-GTA 5, Phantom Pain, Battlefront 2 devs for new open world action RPG

In February, Playground Games—the team behind the Forza Horizon series—announced plans to expand. A new branch would be established in Leamington Spa in England, said studio founder Ralph Fulton at the time, and a new non-racing game would be worked on. 

Now, it appears said game is a new open world action RPG that will be worked on by a team whose collective experience boasts a number of top open world-inspired games.

As reported by gamesindustry.biz, ex-Battlefront 2 senior producer Sean Eyestone is on board—who also spent ten years at Kojima Productions, working on the likes of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and its forerunner Ground Zeroes.

Likewise, recent months have seen chief designer Will Kennedy and combat designer Juan Fernandez di Simon sign up—both of whom worked at Rockstar North (on GTA 5) and Ninja Theory (on Hellblade) respectively. 

A blog post reports Playground's new branch has secured a new 200-person-sized office space that the team is due to move into in 2018. According to gamesindustry.biz, this will see Playground grow to 400 staff members. 

"We're delighted that we've secured a second studio to house our new team," says CEO Gavin Raeburn to GI.biz. "This is a hugely exciting project that is already attracting world-class talent to Playground.

"The combination of new blood and experienced Playground team members is already showing huge promise and I'm excited to see this talented group contribute to Playground's continued success."

Deputy Editor, PC Gaming Show
Latest in Gaming Industry
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
As layoffs and studio closures continue to deathroll the western AAA industry, analyst points out 5 of 8 major Japanese companies hit all-time share prices this year
A still from a video announcement of Game Informer's return, featuring the magazine's Halo 2 issue.
Game Informer is back from the dead: 'The whole team has returned'
Typing on internet search toolbar: What am I doing?
How a Microsoft exec managed to pitch Microsoft Word through the genius tactic of being able to actually use it in a 'type-off' demanded by clients: 'I was the only one who'd actually been a secretary'
Half-Life wallpaper - Gordon Freeman
Former Valve exec says the company struggled to sell Half-Life until coming up with the ultimate 'one simple trick' of marketing manoeuvres: slapping a 'Game of the Year' sticker on the box
Gabe Newell looks into the camera, behind him is a prop of a turret from Team Fortress 2.
Gabe Newell's cult of personality is intense, but a Valve exec who worked with him says his superpower is how he 'delighted in people on the team just being really good at what they did'
The Spy from Team Fortress 2 holds up a folder with an accusatory expression.
One of Valve's original executives shares a very simple secret to its success: 'You can't use up your credibility' by trying to make bad games work
Latest in News
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Otter AI Meeting Agent
As if your work meetings weren't already fun enough, now Otter has a new all-hearing AI agent that remembers everything anyone has said and can join in the discussion