Lighthouse Games, an independent studio started by Playground Games co-founder Gavin Raeburn, has secured investment from Chinese tech giant Tencent. This marks a huge step forward for the UK team.
As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, the amount of investment and other financial terms of the deals remain undisclosed. Lighthouse Games will allocate the money towards new technology and recruitment.
According to Raeburn, the studio will maintain independence and full control over its operations and intellectual property. He added that Tencent “offered us a deal that really matched our vision.”
“An investment of this scale allows us to grow our team and prove the vision for our game and remain completely independent, whilst still leveraging the skills and experience of one of the world’s largest video game publishers,” Raeburn told GI.biz. “This new beginning also enables us to build our game from the ground up, with no legacy tech or architecture to work around.”
In a LinkedIn post, Lighthouse called its partnership with Tencent a “game-changing new investment”, which should propel the team towards becoming “one of the leading AAA gaming studios in the UK.”
Lighthouse Games officially announced the beginning of its operations in March. In addition to Raeburn, the studio is led by other former Playground developers like Andy Ward (development director), Jon Davis Hunt (creative director), and Ben Thaker Fell (principal game designer).
There are not many details about their debut project other than that it will be a AAA game based on a new IP. Raeburn noted that people should expect the team to produce “something highly polished and technologically ambitious.”
Lighthouse is not the only studio formed by former Forza developers. In January, a group of Playground veterans, led by creative director Mike Brown, announced Maverick Games. Right now, they are working on an untitled AAA open world title for consoles and PC.