THE GAMING company which created Forza Horizon is branching out but staying in Leamington.
Playground Games is based in Rossmore House on Newbold Terrace where it created the famous racing game which sold millions of copies across the globe.
Now company founder Ralph Fulton is opening a second studio which he also plans to base in the town.
Ralph said: “Opening another studio is something we’ve been talking about for a good few years, but we’ve been keen not to rush into it.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to test ourselves in a different genre.
“We feel like we’ve become pretty good at racing games over the years. We can always get better, we can always strive to get better but we’d love to prove ourselves in a different genre.
“We’re going to need to hire some very talented people with experience that we don’t have.”
Playground Games is currently employs 115 staff but with plans to grow the company’s headcount to 200, new premises are needed.
Ralph added: “We’ve had great success already in bringing people to Leamington, and we want to build an extension of Playground with the same values and principles.”
Leamington is one of the country’s biggest hubs for games developments, being dubbed the Silicon Spa for it’s gaming community.
And Ralph says it is being surrounded by so many big studios – such as Ubisoft, Sega and Codemasters – which attracts gamers to the area.
He added: “We recruit people from all over the UK, all over Europe, all over the world. One of the things anyone does when they’re planning a move is looking into whether there are any other games places nearby, just in case it doesn’t work out. It’s great for us that there are loads of studios here as I’m sure it’s great for them that we’re here as well.”
