About Playground

Playground Games was established in 2010, bringing together some of the most experienced and talented developers from the UK industry, with the vision to create genre-defining titles for a global audience. Since then, we’ve created four critically-acclaimed, award-winning hits; our Horizon games have garnered more than one hundred awards and have been played by many millions of fans.

Today, Playground has two world-class studios in Leamington Spa. In our original HQ, we continue to support and grow the huge, vibrant Horizon community. In our new studio on the other side of town, we are excited to be developing Fable, a new beginning for the legendary franchise.

Our philosophy

We want to make the best games possible, and we believe that making them should be fun.

At Playground we set ourselves lofty goals. We want to be the best in the world at whatever we do, so we never compromise on quality. But we also believe that making games should be fun, and we do everything we can to create an environment which fosters creativity, teamwork and a relaxed working atmosphere. Our state-of-the-art studios, both situated in the centre of Royal Leamington Spa, are light, airy and spacious. Both are equipped with recreation areas offering chill out space and games, as well as fully-stocked drinks fridges. These spaces are used as much for breaks and informal meetings during the day as they are for socialising and relaxation after work.

Playground organises regular events throughout the year. The Summer Barbecue and the Christmas party are mainstays of the PG social calendar, but Pub Thursdays, for which PG picks up the tab, are also popular and much more frequent. Our wrap parties, held to celebrate the launch of a game, are the stuff of legend. Staff often organise activities to which all are invited, from badminton to a weekly board games evening, and our studio facilities are open for team use every night of the week. Everyone in the team is able to give feedback on life at Playground, and improvements are frequently made to studio amenities and processes based on the results of our regular Staff Satisfaction surveys.

Women of XBOX UK – International Women’s Day 2021

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Following the first video last October, the Women of Xbox UK group has once again brought together women from across Xbox to discuss their experiences in the games industry. Celebrating International Women’s Day and reflecting this year’s theme of #ChooseToChallenge, this edition of Women of Xbox UK features Louise O’Connor (Everwild Executive Producer, Rare) in…

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Women of Xbox UK

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The women at Xbox Game Studios UK are excited to share the first in the series of “Conversations with Women of Xbox UK”. Together with colleagues from Rare and Ninja Theory, we’ve set up a new group aimed at celebrating the women who work in gaming and encouraging new talent to come and find a…

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Best Places to Work Awards 2019

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As proud sponsors of the 2019 Gamesindustry.biz Best Places to Work Awards, we recently attended the awards ceremony on the 20th September at the Ham Yard Hotel in central London. But we weren’t just there in our role of sponsors and we were thrilled to receive one of the event’s coveted Best Places to Work…

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Forza Horizon 4 – Community Update

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With now over 3.6million players, the success of Forza Horizon 4 has seen the community coming together to produce amazing races, photography and designs. The creativity levels have been raised yet again to show off the world’s fastest assets – and by that, we don’t just mean the sheep. It’s been wonderful to see all…

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