Lighthouse Games

Lighthouse Games is a AAA game development studio headquartered in Leamington Spa, United Kingdom, a major hub for the country's video game industry. The company was established in 2022, though it publicly emerged from stealth mode in March 2023. The studio's mission is to develop technologically ambitious and highly polished games, aiming to create a new, genre-defining franchise.

The studio was founded by Gavin Raeburn, a veteran of the gaming industry with over 30 years of experience. Raeburn's career began in 1986 at Codemasters, where he was instrumental in leading the development of successful racing franchises such as Dirt, Grid, and F1. In 2010, he co-founded Playground Games, the studio behind the critically and commercially successful Forza Horizon series for Xbox. After leaving Playground Games in early 2022, Raeburn assembled a team of experienced developers, many of whom were former colleagues from Playground and Codemasters, to form Lighthouse Games. The leadership team includes notable figures like Director Nick Wheelwright, Creative Director Jon Davis Hunt, and Principal Game Designer Ben Thaker-Fell.

Lighthouse Games operates as an independent studio focused on creating games for PC and consoles. The company has secured significant, undisclosed funding from Tencent through its Venture Lab initiative. This investment, received in two rounds starting in July 2023, is intended to accelerate the studio's growth and development of its debut title while allowing Lighthouse to retain full creative and publishing control. As of June 2025, the studio has expanded to a team of 130 people, with plans to hire more.

The studio's first project is a new intellectual property described as a "disruptive" driving game. While details are scarce, the company has stated its goal is not to replicate the Forza Horizon formula but to innovate within the racing genre by creating a different type of car game. This debut title is being built on the Unreal Engine and is aimed at the AAA market. The business model centers on the development and sale of these high-budget games, targeting a global audience of console and PC players. Keywords: AAA game development, Leamington Spa, Gavin Raeburn, Playground Games, Forza Horizon, Codemasters, Tencent, PC games, console games, driving games, racing games, new IP, Unreal Engine, game development studio, video game industry, UK games industry, independent studio, Ben Thaker-Fell, Jon Davis Hunt, Nick Wheelwright