Amazon is swerving into driving games – via a “narrative-led” open world title from the creators of Forza Horizon

Amazon Games has announced that it’s taking a swerve into driving games, entering a publishing agreement with UK-based Maverick Games. Maverick Games – founded in 2022 by several core members of the Forza Horizon team – is currently developing an open world “narrative-led” driving game. It’s this mysterious title that Amazon will be publishing in the near future.

Alongside this information comes an Amazon-led interview with Maverick Games studio head Mike Brown, who reveals a bit more about the vision for this game and why Amazon (the company publishing his next game and who ran this mini-interview) was the right fit. It’s not like he was gonna slag them off here, but nonetheless it’s the first real statement on what the studio is about and thus is worth reading if you’re interested in this next project.

“We founded Maverick Games with a clear vision: to build a developer-first studio that would foster an environment of creativity and risk-taking […] This approach empowers our team to produce the most exceptional work of their careers. And ultimately, that means we are creating a game that our players are going to fall in love with,” Brown states. “As we got to know the team at Amazon Games it quickly became clear that we had a shared ethos – a commitment to giving developers the space to really innovate in service of crafting experiences that players will find truly special. Without giving too much away, I will share that the team here is buzzing with excitement about our game and we can’t wait to share it with the world.”

Aside from that there is no news about this driving game. One can glean that cars will be present, and they will likely have four wheels attached. Indeed this news speaks more of Amazon’s increasing scope when it comes to video game publishing. Initially fumbling its own development efforts with games like Crucible standing out as one of the only games to be unreleased. The company then shifted focus to publishing, finding much success in the MMO market through its western release of Lost Ark.

Staying in the MMO lane it also released New World – a game that also found initial success and is still kicking with its own dedicated audience. Right now Amazon Games is set to publish Blue Protocol and Throne & Liberty soon, while its in-house development team based in Orange County, California is chipping away at a new Lord of the Rings MMO.

To now venture into driving games is actually a step into unknown territory for Amazon Games. Yes, it’s still doing so as a publisher – something the company is surely well-versed at now. But it hints towards a wider scope for future projects. If it does well I suspect we’ll see Amazon continue its outreach into a vaster pool of would-be partners. It is Amazon after all – it’s hard to imagine the company is content being solely an MMO publisher.

But, as Mike Brown states in his statement, we’ll have to sit back and stay tuned for additional updates. Personally speaking I’m happy to see a group of UK-based devs go out on their own and set up their own partnerships. Forza Horizon is great too, so if their previous work is any indicator of quality this should be a game worth keeping tabs on. What do you think of this news? Is it a good match? Let us know below.