Amazon abandons open-world racing game by former Forza Horizon devs

An open-world racing game from a studio formed by former Forza Horizon developers was supposed to be published by Amazon, but that is no longer the case. As first reported UK-based Maverick Games is now in “active dialogue” with potential new publishing partners for its currently untitled debut game, which remains in development.

Maverick was created in 2022 by Mike Brown, who served as creative director of the Horizon series during his time at Playground Games, and managed to entice a number of other former Playground veterans to join the new studio. Little was known about the game being picked up by Amazon, but shortly after Maverick’s creation, Brown said that his ambition was to create a AAA, premium game and ultimately released with the intention of “winning all the awards”.

“As part of our strategic evolution to focus on projects that leverage Amazon’s unique strengths and scale, including the recent Luna relaunch and our Tomb Raider franchise partnership with Crystal Dynamics, we have decided to release Maverick Games from their publishing agreement with Amazon Game Studios,” an Amazon Game Studios representative said in a statement to The gaming business.

“We have immense respect for the team at Maverick Games and the compelling narrative driving experience they create,” the company said. “This move gives Maverick Games the flexibility to find a publishing partner whose strategic priorities are better aligned with the commercialization of their game. We are proud of what we have accomplished together during our partnership and wish them every success in the future.”

Amazon’s push into the video game business has yielded mixed results. He appears to remain committed to growing his streaming service, but as a publisher and developer, things haven’t gone smoothly. The free multiplayer shooter of 2020 disappeared so quickly that most people probably forgot it existed. The MMO New World proved more effective, but Amazon is still in the process of getting out of the game next year. The future of the company is unclear, but reports that last year’s cuts to its MMO division also affected the team working on this game.

Earlier this week, it was the cooperative dungeon crawler released by Amazon Games. King of meat will close on April 9, less than a year after its October 2025 launch. The company still has a few Tomb Raider games on its release slate, one of which is a reimagining of the original 1996 series.