Amazon Is Publishing A ‘Narrative-Led’ AAA Forza Horizon Rival

It feels as though anyone trying to make a better open-world driving game than Forza Horizon might as well not bother. The Crew Motorfest is a good game, but not quite a great one, while Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown has been hit by so many delays you have to question if it’ll ever come out and in what state. There’s another challenger coming though, and with Amazon backing it, we’re all ears.

Maverick Games, a studio led by ex-Forza Horizon creative director Mike Brown no less, is working on a new AAA, ‘narrative-led’ open-world driving game with Amazon Games set to publish the title. It’ll release on PC, Xbox and PlayStation but that’s all the info we have on the game itself at the moment, but it’s already an intriguing prospect.

We have zero idea how much this new title will lean into the Forza Horizon arcade racer-turned-festival vibe. We do know that along with Brown, the studio has a handful of ex-Playground Games developers (the people behind Forza Horizon, in case you didn’t know) and others who have worked on open-world pirate adventure title Sea of Thieves as well as Cyberpunk 2077. Serious pedigree, then.

Maverick seems pretty serious on the ‘narrative-led’ aspect too. Brown said: “Lots of great driving games have amazing gameplay, amazing content. But to really cross that bridge, to become a game that people genuinely love, then there needs to be that human connection where you’re actually rooting for these characters, falling in love with these characters.

“That, I think, is a place where our game will be able to really differentiate itself from the other titles in the genre. There’s nothing about this genre that prevents it from having amazing characters and amazing stories — it’s just not really been explored yet.”

If you’re a fan of British TV show Skins, then there’s even more reason to get excited. Jamie Brittain, the BAFTA-winning series’ co-creator is taking on the role of lead writer for this new game. We’re getting the impression that the story is going to be much, much more than just fodder to loosely explain why you’re hammering supercars around an island paradise then.

We have no clues as of yet when more info on Maverick’s project will come to light, but it’s going to be one to watch.