Independent studio Maverick Games, founded by former Forza Horizon 5 creative director Mike Brown, will finally be revealing its new AAA open-world action-driving game on June 2, at 11am London BST (6am EDT / 3am PDT / 8pm AEST).

The Maverick Games team has been hosting a countdown livestream over the past week from within a modified Fiat Multipla that has been placed inside the Leamington Spa-based studio. The team has revealed a small series of screenshots to date, along with several clues relating to possible features and a potential location.

Earlier this year, Amazon backed out of the publishing deal it had with Maverick Games for its untitled racer. Fortunately, this didn’t prove to be the end of the road for the project, with Brown quickly confirming on social media that development was continuing to progress strongly and that the game’s announcement was still coming.

Maverick Games was founded in 2022 following the departure of a number of staff from Forza Horizon developer Playground Games. At that time, former Forza Horizon 5 creative director Mike Brown was joined by producer Tom Butcher, technical director Matt Craven, technical art director Gareth Harwood, audio director Fraser Stachan, and art director Ben Penrose. It was revealed in January 2023 that the team was working on a “premium open-world game for consoles and PC.”

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.

For as massive and ever-present a franchise as The Simpsons is, it doesn’t have the foothold in the video game arena you might expect. The wildly popular mobile game The Simpsons: Tapped Out was delisted in 2025, and fans are still clamoring for a remaster of or sequel to The Simpsons Hit & Run. The recent success of Fortnite’s Simpsons crossover shows just how much pent-up demand there is for The Simpsons gaming content.

Enter Scopely and its popular Monopoly Go! mobile game. Monopoly Go! Will be hosting a Simpsons-themed crossover event that lasts from June 3 through July 29. The entire game will be transformed and reimagined through the lens of Springfield, USA, as players take control of characters like Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa and buy up iconic locales from the show. The game will be completely packed with Simpsons references and Easter eggs, including a new gameplay mechanic where players can attempt to bribe Chief Wiggum to get out of jail.

There will even be a story component to this The Simpsons event, with new chapters unfolding every two weeks. That story kicks off in the form of an animated short that explores the long-standing rivalry between Mr. Burns and Mr. Monopoly (voiced by none other than Will Ferrell). You can watch that animated short here.

To learn more about what to expect from this Monopoly Go!/The Simpsons crossover, IGN spoke with The Simpsons executive producer and showrunner Matt Selman, GM of 20th Century Games and VP, Business Development John Drake, and Scopely’s VP Operations Joe Zanetti. Read on to learn more about this massive crossover and how it draws on decades of The Simpsons lore.

As mentioned, this new crossover is coming on the heels of a massive collaboration between Fortnite and The Simpsons in late 2025. Epic Games set a high bar for Scopely to meet, but all three men feel this crossover lives up to that standard. It even has one big advantage over the Fortnite crossover. Fortnite is a skill-based game, whereas Monopoly Go! is a much more casual experience with a potentially wider audience.

“Fortnite is hard and requires skill, so we thought we’d give people the opposite experience with this collaboration, a really chillax game,” Selman tells IGN. “You can just leisurely play without worrying about getting shot. No snipe anxiety in this, my friends. Just a laid back, maxin’ and relaxin’, kind of fun chill-out game.

Drake adds, “I think, to Matt's point, this game is far less sweaty than being in a life-or-death struggle in battle royale.”

It would be easy to slap a Simpsons-flavored coat of paint on Monopoly Go! and call it a day, but Selman is adamant that this isn’t what happened. Scopely put a lot of time and effort into figuring out how to truly take advantage of this pop culture mash-up.

“Scopely nailed it,” Selman says. “They really ran with the Simpsons football so beautifully because we were just like, be subversive, be Simpson-y. Don't just be a butt-kissy, pointless brand collaboration. And they, in all the Scopely creative, they took that note to heart and said, ‘We are going to make this. Like, what's the version of this Bart would love to play? What's the version of this that has that Bart attitude of being playful and subversive and not just straight ahead?’ I mean, we all love the Three Little Pigs chapter of Monopoly Go, but subversiveness is not the word that came to mind when you played it. I mean, they were definitely cute pigs. They gave you little dices and stuff when you whacked those little pigs.”

Drake argues that these two properties are a more natural fit than fans might realize at first glance, because they both deal so heavily in good-natured mischief.

“I think we're fortunate that Monopoly Go, and especially in how you interact with other people, already has elements of mischief and destruction, and it is itself the culture at scale,” Drake says. “It's such a giant title of so many people playing it that are like, how do you find fun ways to work on things that are familiar? And then again, to Matt's point, subvert those things, mess with your friends, have fun moments that are not expected, and use The Simpsons as a storytelling vehicle to do that, or even, set dressing to do that. I think that they wildly over-delivered.”

Zanetti agrees, saying, “One thing I'll add just quickly here is just, Monopoly has always been mischief. And I know, even in the room, Matt, you were always talking about, ‘How can we subvert different mechanics?’ And we had a lot of different ones that came out of those talks, where we could, basically, look at our jail Monopoly mechanic. How can we mess with that in really interesting ways that will surprise players, how we could look at doing little takeover moments that would really emphasize character interaction. And we've got some really fun flash events that do those kinds of moments, and we're very excited about it.”

The real fun of this crossover event is that there is actually a storyline fueling the event, and Selman promises that it’ll keep players engaged, even to the point that they’ll want to tune out any other distractions.

“There's a lot of conflict at the core of The Simpsons. Inter-family conflict, inter-friend conflict, Homer-Bart conflict, Homer versus Marge conflict, and from conflict, comes drama,” Selman says. “And I really just think, between Scopely and the Simpsons writers that worked on it, it just really succeeded in explaining that mission. So maybe it's so good you could even turn off the TV, or you're still watching while playing. That's how good this is. You are going to single-screen this thing.”

And if that’s not enough, the crossover will offer players plenty of Simpsons-flavored collectibles to acquire.

“There's a lot of fun collection in this, but I will say, there was really a great back and forth between the Simpsons writing team and our crew as we were going back and forth on these,” Zanetti says. “So I would just say, that was a legitimately, really fun collaboration that our team really enjoyed.”

Drake adds, “It's a nice combination of throwback iconic things from the show. The sticker sets in particular and original narratives of how they cross over… ‘How do we combine these two worlds in a fun way that's through a Simpsons lens?’ And I think that's where the collaboration is more… It's like this is the opposite of a brand partnership. It's a true how does a game creative team and a show creative team make something that speaks to the fans of both? It's really exciting.”

Ultimately, the crossover works because employees on both sides of the equation were invested in making it happen and taking full advantage of it.

“The fun thing here was, sometimes we have relationships where the teams do not play, and with Simpsons, everybody's playing all the time,” Zanetti says. “So it's one of those things where they're giving us very real-time feedback on all our various game mechanics as we're doing them. And so it's refreshing. I mean, it's kind of awesome.”

One suggestion from the 20th Television side didn’t make the cut, unfortunately. Selman reveals that his team pitched the idea of renaming the game “Monopoly D’oh!” But because of SEO and branding concerns, that didn’t happen.

To illustrate just how much work went into this crossover, Gracie Films was tasked with creating an entire mini-episode of The Simpsons that sets the stage for the event. In it, fans can see Harry Shearer’s Mr. Burns going to war with Will Ferrell’s Mr. Monopoly, as their decades-old rivalry comes to a head. Naturally, plenty of other Springfield residents pop up in this video.

“Mr. Pennybags has been on in previous [episodes] as a crony of Mr. Burns,” Selman says. “So it's something that's even laid in the show with these rivalries, with these other rich cartoon characters like, Scrooge McDuck, Richie Rich, and people like that. So then you just really believe that there's a deep, long rivalry between Mr. Monopoly and Mr. Burns. Again, it comes from character, which is so good.”

Zanetti adds, “It's such a great billionaire versus billionaire thing for us to engage in.”

Selman says that one of the joys of working on the mini-episode was the opportunity to see Shearer and Ferrell play off of each other, noting that this marks the first time the two comedy legends have worked together.

“You got Mr. Burns versus Mr. Monopoly original animation,” Selman says. “So it's like a five-minute new clip, something like that, with Will Ferrell and Harry Shearer. This is legit, the real deal. And they had so much fun doing it. They were both super into it, and that was great. Both he and Harry Shearer are comedic icons. And this is cool, this is their first small-screen collaboration, right?”

But that mini-episode is just the start of the storyline in this crossover. The game will regularly progress and evolve as this feud plays out in the streets of Springfield.

“There's this wonderful little setup for the arc with our Mr. Monopoly versus Mr. Burns,” Zanetti says. “But also the other thing that's really fun is, we've got episode drops within our actual season where we're also doing like, hey, we're going to introduce you to the world of Springfield. Hey, we're in Krustyland, now we're going to look at a nuclear power plant. And we're doing almost an episodic structure to the season... Because honestly, the way our gameplay rolls and the way our mini games happen, it almost is episodic in nature. So it feeds to the, exactly, that cadence, but that's something where we're telling little stories within it that are really fun, too.”

Drake adds, “And I think it was important for us to show all the great ways that these worlds can play together and that sort of chaotic, ruthless capitalism, like fantasy capitalism is what Monopoly is known for, as I think [writer Loni Steele Sosthand] put it in the short. It's not used as the conceit or justification for why they're combined in-game. And nor are, just to be really clear, there follow-up linear animation pieces for those episodic drops in-game, but we're able to tell stories inside the boards that week. The sticker collections, like any episode of the show, are not part of some master continuity. They are, in fact, exploring corners and parts of the world of Springfield and its many citizens in ways that are fun and ideally, have some surprise and delight moments for fans where they wouldn't think Monopoly Go! would go in a certain direction based on past partnerships. And I think we go there.”

Again, it would have been easy for Scopely to simply throw the main cast of The Simpsons into Monopoly Go! and call it a day. But Zanetti says that they were intent on mining the series for all its worth and really digging into the decades of Simpsons lore.

“We always have a lot of different tokens, emojis, and things that you can earn,” Zanetti says. “We do more in this collaboration than ever because, of course, Simpsons has this deep backlog of awesome characters. And so our thing was, we didn't want to just do… Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart. We wanted to do Easter egg deep cuts. And so we were really able to get a lot into it. So I think fans will really be like, oh, can I collect all of these? Can I figure out ways to really get the entire town?”

Drake teases, “If you're looking for some love for Mr. Sparkle. We got you.”

Selman adds, “That's the beauty of this, that Scopely’s programmers and artistic creative producers are all, whether they know it or not, Simpsons fans, and they brought so much of their fandom to this. It's just always fun to see what they're excited about and what they were like, oh, this is what we want to see in the game as Simpsons' fans. So that's also very heartening and exciting for us to watch you guys be excited. We see it every day.”

Zanetti says, “We have done more in this collab than we have in the past, for sure. I think the biggest change is, we certainly have done more unique features that are really based on, how we can do fun mechanics with Simpsons, and how we can really double down on the subversion thing? And that, hands down, it's more than we've ever done.”

Drake adds, “And I had the good fortune of being around the Star Wars and the Marvel partnerships that were done before this in our work across groups here, and Scopely has always treated the IP with great care and made sure it really feels authentic and, on point, for the fans of that. But I think some of the more high-traffic areas and how far they were willing to push it for The Simpsons, definitely shows that this is boundary pushing in a lot of ways that I think, previous executions, maybe, played it a little safer. And we are anything but safe in how we partner with companies.”

“Least safe,” Selman agrees. “But one of the great parts about the game is every day there's a new mechanic, or every two days. There's always a new crazy thing happening for you to engage with, and they just always brought it when it came to finding a clever, earned, super Simpson-y way to bring that new little mini game or competitive thing or team-up thing, or whatever. They're just very cool. I can't wait till you guys see them.”

One unique challenge posed by this crossover involves how to combine the two properties visually. How do you take the deeply iconic 2D animation style of the show and merge it with Monopoly Go! and the game’s signature 3D chibi characters? That was one of the more difficult aspects of this project.

“I will say, it was a challenge,” Zanetti admits. “We had to look at a lot of different shaders because basically, what we wanted to do was get the Simpsons style as close as we could. So, looking at the board, how can we make the board really feel like it? How can we make Springfield feel like it has jumped into the middle of the Monopoly board? And then the other one, which was a really fun collaboration, was figuring out our 3D character style, of how we can bring all the Simpsons characters into what we'd call a sort of chibi kind of style. They're all cute and adorable in the best way.”

Drake adds, “Previous collaborations have adapted, sort of like, the vibe and dressing of those characters, hairstyles, outfits on top of the Monopoly form factor, which is itself, not a one-to-one human shape and rig. And I think with The Simpsons, well, we could have gone that direction, sort of like, what is the cosplay version of Monopoly doing The Simpsons? But even those early explorations, no, I mean, these characters stand out as so iconic. I think the question is best, how can we adapt that really well- known and beloved look and feel character style to something that is on model and on form factor for Monopoly Go? And I think that it's a huge testament to the Scopely artists that they found that really quickly.”

The Monopoly Go! Simpsons crossover event runs from Wednesday, June 3 through Wednesday, July 29.

For more The Simpsons fun, check out IGN’s picks for the top 36 Simpsons episodes.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.

IGN Live is coming up on June 6–7, and it’s going to be full of announcements, interviews, in-person events, and more from across the gaming industry. And one of the featured games will be Bellwright, a medieval survival game and base builder from developer Donkey Crew and publisher Snail Games.

It’s sold more than 1 million copies in Steam Early Access and is coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Donkey Crew studio lead Florian Hofreither and lead gameplay developer Sergii Greben will be on stage with us on June 6 to discuss Bellwright’s gameplay, central narrative, multiplayer, and their plans for the future.

You’ll be able to watch that interview online or in person, but attendees at IGN Live can test their mettle with a Bellwright-themed axe throwing booth. That's right, you'll be able to step back into medieval times and see how well you can hurl the hero's weapon of choice, the trusty axe. And fear not for the safety of the serfs! It's completely safe.

Don’t miss out on this content and a lot more during IGN Live on June 6–7 and all summer long during our Summer of Gaming.