Lighthouse Games

Lighthouse Games is a Royal Leamington Spa-based AAA video game developer founded in 2022 by Gavin Raeburn. The independent studio is building a new open-world driving franchise, combining the experience of a leadership team with deep roots in racing games with a focused, new-IP development effort.

The company was publicly announced in March 2023 and initially assembled a founding group of more than 30 senior developers and specialists from Playground Games and other UK studios. Its work is centred on a currently unannounced driving title described as a disruptive, genre-redefining project intended to challenge established open-world racing games.

Development focus

Lighthouse Games develops its project with Unreal Engine 5 alongside proprietary technology for vehicle handling, streaming and terrain systems. Its supported capabilities include:

• AAA game development across concept, design, narrative, art, engineering, audio, quality assurance and release management
• Open-world game design and driving or racing systems
• Vehicle dynamics, physics, production pipelines and proprietary tooling
• High-fidelity 3D environments, materials and character art
• Unreal Engine 5 engineering

The studio’s debut project remains in active production and had not released a commercial game as of September 2026.

Studio background

Gavin Raeburn previously co-founded Playground Games and led work associated with the Forza Horizon series. Lighthouse Games has also drawn on talent from across the UK games industry, including executive, creative and publishing leadership.

Tencent has made minority equity investments in the studio, including an initial investment in 2023 and follow-on funding in 2025. Lighthouse Games maintains creative and publishing independence.

The studio has received GamesIndustry.biz Best Places To Work recognition in consecutive years: Best Small Studio in 2023 and Best Mid-sized Studio in 2024. Its dedicated Leamington Spa development facility supports the in-house team with motion-capture and audio suites, meeting spaces and collaborative design floors.