Maverick Games wants to “try and win Game of the Year” with Clutch Forza Horizon 5’s former creative director and Clutch Creative Director and CEO, Mike Brown, explains why he left Playground Games to work on the new racing IP. Before establishing Maverick Games to work on the upcoming open-world racer Clutch, Mike Brown worked on the Forza Horizon series at Playground Games and was the creative director of the fifth entry. Leaving an established franchise to work on a new IP was inherently risky, but Brown felt compelled to do something different in the driving genre. “I’ve been at Playground for a long time. We’ve shipped some great games. And for me, in order to get myself up in the morning and then drive at things, I need to set myself difficult-to-reach goals that might be impossible,” he said. “There was a risk of getting complacent” working on Forza Horizon “With FH5, I was like, right, got to win a BAFTA. Want to get Game of the Year. Everyone says a driving game can’t win Game of the Year.” Ultimately, Forza Horizon 5 won the Innovation in Accessibility Award at The Game Awards 2021, but it was not eligible for the coveted Game of the Year award. “Due to annoying date windows, we were available to be submitted for every one of the game awards, but not Game of the Year because we launched a few days too late,” he explained. “That had an earlier submission window.” It did, however, win numerous Game of the Year awards at games media outlets, including IGN. “That’s obviously a great achievement for the team,” Brown reflected. “It’s amazing, because that franchise never got close to a Game of the Year nomination previously. But it then leaves us as leaders thinking, right, what’s