Forza Horizon developer Playground Games have broken away to develop new open-worlds at their own studio. Maverick Games is based in Leamington Spa, UK, and headed up by Forza Horizon 5’s creative director Mike Brown. Brown also fills the role of creative director at Maverick. Harinder Sangha, formerly of Sega Hardlight and Sumo Leamington, will run the studio as chief operations officer.
Epic Games took to the @FortniteStatus Twitter account yesterday to announce that a period of game downtime was scheduled for this morning (10th January) to fix several mechanical issues. The maintenance was performed as planned and the Fortnite serves are now back online.
Of the many issues that the patch set out to tackle, the most prominent was with the recently-added Shockwave Hammer – a new weapon which had an easily exploited glitch to remove its cooldown period (thanks, Eurogamer). Ever since the weapon’s addition in last month’s Chapter 4 update, the hammer became a fan-favourite, but it was quickly removed from the game (‘vaulted’, as the kids say) for its glitches.
Welcome to 2023, Game Pass friends! We’re starting off the year with some iconic franchises from beloved Japanese developers whose games will soon be landing with Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass. For now, let’s start juicing up our controllers and get our pre-install on; it’s time to get to the games!
Coming Soon
Persona 3 Portable (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 19 If I say there’s an hour “hidden” between one day and the next… would you believe me? Master the power of the heart, Persona, and uncover the tragic truth of the Dark Hour. Experience the iconic, critically acclaimed RPG that reinvented the Persona series!
Persona 4 Golden (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 19 Experience a coming-of-age story that sets the protagonist and his friends on a journey kickstarted by a chain of serial murders. The world-renowned Persona 4 Golden promises unforgettable adventures, meaningful bonds, and heartwarming experiences shared together with friends.
Monster Hunter Rise (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 20 The critically acclaimed action-RPG series returns! Set in the Japanese folklore inspired land of Kamura, players will team up to battle fearsome monsters, craft a wide variety of gear, and prevent the world from falling into calamity. Rise to the challenge and join the hunt!
In Case You Missed It
Mortal Shell:EnhancedEdition (Cloud, Console, and PC) – Available now Making a return to the Game Pass library, Mortal Shell is a deep action RPG that tests your sanity and resilience in a shattered world. Your adversaries spare no mercy, with survival demanding superior awareness, precision, and instincts. Possess lost warriors, track down hidden sanctums of the devout, and face formidable foes.
Stranded Deep (Cloud, Console, and PC) – Available now Take the role of a plane crash survivor stranded somewhere in the Pacific. Experience terrifying encounters both above and below an endless environment. Come face to face with some of the most life-threatening scenarios that will result in a unique experience each time you play.
Valheim: Mistlands Biome Update (PC) – Available now It’s time to pick up your Viking shield once more and set sail for the Mistlands! Valheim’s latest biome update promises new ways of both building and fighting, but you’d better make sure to stay on your guard as there are many new dangers as well…
Leaving January 15
The following games are leaving the Game Pass library soon, so be sure to use your membership discount to save up to 20% on any games you want to keep in your library!
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Nobody Saves The World (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Pupperazzi (Cloud, Console, and PC)
The Anacrusis (Game Preview) (Cloud, Console, and PC)
We Happy Few (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Windjammers 2 (Cloud, Console, and PC)
We’re just getting warmed up and we’ll be back soon with more games, more Perks, and more news. If your new year’s resolution was to play more games, I highly recommend grabbing the Xbox Game Pass mobile app so you can download your games remotely and pick out what you plan to play next. Keep tuned here and at @XboxGamePass or @XboxGamePassPC on Twitter for more!
Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered hails from Skunkape Games, who describe themselves as “owners and caretakers” of the Sam & Max games that Telltale developed. Skunkape are made up of some former Telltale devs, so there’s a nice bit of continuity there. You can watch a teaser for the remaster below.
CES 2023 came and went while I was burning through a statutory holiday entitlement in the Welsh countryside, so these highlights of the Vegas tech show’s PC gaming gear reveals may be as much news to me as they are to you. Unless you caught Katharine’s writeup on the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, which I did once I found a smidge of 4G signal. Cheers, chief.
Several developers from Xbox’s Forza Horizon developer Playground Games have left the company to form a new studio, Maverick Games.
As reported by Eurogamer, former Forza Horizon 5 creative director Mike Brown will lead the new studio and is joined by five other former Playground employees. The development team is at work on a “premium open world game for consoles and PC” and has already secured “significant seed funding”.
The other developers making the jump to Maverick Games include Playground’s lead producer Tom Butcher, technical director Matt Craven, technical art director Gareth Harwood, audio director Fraser Stachan, and art director Ben Penrose.
“For players, we’re already at work on an exciting ultra-high quality title, and for developers, we’re building a home where everyone is encouraged to take risks, be curious, be creative, be innovative, be themselves, and above all – be a Maverick,” the developer said.
Playground Games was founded in 2010 and until recently has only developed Forza Horizon games. It made the switch to something new in 2020, however, when Xbox announced it would be working on Fable, the latest game in its fantasy RPG franchise.
“They also have a real passion for the IP and a unique point of view on what’s core to Fable. Everything I’ve seen as the game progresses tells me this is going to be a very high-quality release.”
In our 10/10 review of Forza Horizon 5, IGN said: “Forza Horizon 5 is the result of a racing studio at the peak of its craft and the best open-world racing game available.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
The Callisto Protocol have spoken out after not being credited for their work on the game. Five people who used to work for developers Striking Distance spoke to GamesIndustry.biz, and said that they didn’t make it onto The Callisto Protocol’s credits. Other sources told the site that around 20 staff from several departments were omitted, including senior developers, leads, and directors, some of whom had worked at the studio for more than a year.
Since the Switch launched back in 2017, we’ve seen an influx of powerful, dedicated handheld systems that many have deemed to be ‘rivals’ to Nintendo’s hybrid platform. We prefer to view them simply as alternative devices to potentially suit a wide range of gaming preferences, with products like the Steam Deck and the Aya Neo Next providing relatively approachable (albeit often quite expensive) solutions if you’re after something to go alongside your Switch.
The latest premium handheld device to hit the market comes via hardware company Razer, which recently announced a release date of January 26th, 2023 for its portable Android and streaming console, dubbed the Razer Edge. Reservations can currently be made on the official Razer website for a fee of $5, with the prices starting at $399.99.
Redfall is revealed. Windows Central report that an Xbox showcase could be lined up for January 25th at 8pm GMT/9pm CET/12pm PT, but that might still change. It’s believed that this stream will focus on Arkane’s co-op horror shooter, which was originally due to launch in summer last year before a delay into 2023.
Airing on the Japanese variety show later this week.
The Pokémon series has come a long way and as of the ninth generation (Pokémon Scarlet and Violet), there are now more than 1,000 Pokémon.
As part of this milestone, the Japanese variety show PokéDoko apparently has a special “world premiere” video scheduled to air during its upcoming episode later this week on 15th January. According to a translation via Serebii.net, it promises to make trainers enjoy the games “100 times more”:
Forza Horizon developer Playground Games have broken away to develop new open-worlds at their own studio. Maverick Games is based in Leamington Spa, UK, and headed up by Forza Horizon 5’s creative director Mike Brown. Brown also fills the role of creative director at Maverick. Harinder Sangha, formerly of Sega Hardlight and Sumo Leamington, will run the studio as chief operations officer.
Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse Remastered hails from Skunkape Games, who describe themselves as “owners and caretakers” of the Sam & Max games that Telltale developed. Skunkape are made up of some former Telltale devs, so there’s a nice bit of continuity there. You can watch a teaser for the remaster below.
CES 2023 came and went while I was burning through a statutory holiday entitlement in the Welsh countryside, so these highlights of the Vegas tech show’s PC gaming gear reveals may be as much news to me as they are to you. Unless you caught Katharine’s writeup on the 
The Callisto Protocol have spoken out after not being credited for their work on the game. Five people who used to work for developers Striking Distance spoke to 
Redfall is revealed.