Lighthouse Games making a ‘disruptive’ racing title to take on Forza Horizon

Lighthouse Games head Gavin Raeburn has teased the studio is making a “disruptive” racing title that will be “very different” to ‘Forza Horizon’.

Lighthouse Games is making a “disruptive” racing title to challenge ‘Forza Horizon’.

The studio is looking to carve out its own space in racing genre dominated by AAA franchises like ‘Forza Horizon’, ‘Need For Speed’ and ‘Gran Turismo’, though Lighthouse co-founder Gavin Raeburn has teased the company is creating a “very different” racing game now it has secured an investment from Tencent.

He told GamesIndustrybiz: “The racing market now is very healthy, it’s very good, it’s doing well.

“But if you look at the market, you look at ‘Horizon’ … the number of people I’ve spoken to who’ve played ‘Horizon’ who would say, ‘I didn’t think I liked racing games, but I love ‘Horizon’ – it’s been hugely successful.

“So the market is successful if you’re [developing] an open world game with cars, but all these racing [developers] are delivering one type of game. That’s the opportunity for us to do something that is very different and disruptive in the racing market.”

Raeburn – who worked at ‘Forza Horizon’ developer Playground Games from 2009 to 2022 – said he believed people wanted “more experiences” beyond simply car racing titles, and added “there are huge areas” that Lighthouse can move into to fill this desire.

He said: “I think what ‘Horizon’ has shown is that there is a real desire on behalf of gamers to play games with cars.

“I think it’s just been an underserved sector of the audience for the last 10-15 years. And I think ‘Horizon’ is shaking that up a little bit, and perhaps that’s why others are trying to copy the formula.

“But again, that’s why we think there’s room for disruption here. People want more experiences. They don’t just want the ‘Horizon’ experience, and there isn’t really many places you go.

“You can go to the indie area of the market. Yes, you can find some games there. But there are huge areas that we think we can move into to satisfy a latent desire for different types of car games.”