Amazon Games has announced its entry into the racing game space, reaching a publishing agreement with British company Maverick Games. Maverick Games was founded in 2022 by several core members of the Forza Horizon team and is currently developing an open-world “narrative-driven” racing game. Amazon will publish this mysterious game in the near future.
Alongside this information is an Amazon-led interview with Maverick Games studio head Mike Brown, who reveals more about the vision for the game and why Amazon (the company publishing his next game and the host of this brief interview) is the right fit. He’s not trying to criticize them here, but nonetheless, this is the first real statement from the studio, so it’s worth a read if you’re interested in the next project.
“We founded Maverick Games with a clear vision: to build a developer-first studio that fosters an environment of creativity and risk-taking. […] This approach enables our team to create the best work of their careers. Ultimately, that means we’re building a game our players will fall in love with,” said Brown. “As we got to know the Amazon Games team, it quickly became clear that we shared a common ethos – a commitment to providing developers with the space to truly innovate and create experiences that players will find truly special. I won’t reveal too much, but I will say that the team here is incredibly excited about our game, and we can’t wait to share it with the world.”
Beyond that, there is no news about the racing game. One can infer that there will be cars in the game, and most likely on four wheels. In fact, this news is more of an indication of Amazon’s expanding scope in video game publishing. Initially, Amazon’s development efforts didn’t go well, with games such as Crucible standing out as one of the only unreleased games. The company then turned its focus to publishing, finding great success in the MMO market with its Western release of Lost Ark.
In the MMO space, the company also released New World – a game that also saw initial success and still has its own loyal user base. Currently, Amazon Games is about to release Blue Protocol and Thrones and Freedom, and its internal development team in Orange County, California is working on a new Lord of the Rings MMO.
Moving into racing games now is effectively a step into the unknown for Amazon Games. Yes, it’s still operating as a publisher – something the company is certainly well versed in by now. But it hints at a much broader scope for future projects. If it goes well, I’d guess we’ll see Amazon continue to reach out to a wider range of potential partners. This is Amazon, after all – it’s hard to imagine the company settling for just being an MMO publisher.
However, as Mike Brown said in the statement, we’ll have to sit back and stay tuned for more updates. Personally, I’m excited to see a group of UK developers going independent and building their own partnership. Forza Horizon is also great, so if their previous work is any indicator of quality, this should be a game to keep an eye on. What do you think of this news? Is it a good match? Let us know below.