New developer Maverick Games, a studio comprising many who worked on the Forza Horizon series, has finally whipped the covers off its first title set to debut in early 2027: “Clutch“.
The independent studio was founded in late 2022, largely from Playground Games staff including founder Mike Brown who had been creative director on Forza Horizon 5. Other day one crew included FH5 lead producer Tom Butcher, audio director Fraser Strachan, technical director Matt Craven, and art director Gareth Harwood, while Maverick also brought Elly Marshall from Slightly Mad Studios and brought back ex-PG man Benjamin Penrose.
In 2024, MG announced that it had started a collaboration with Amazon Games to bring its new title to the market, with Skins writer Jamie Brittain coming on-board as the lead writer for the “narrative-led” title, though Amazon dropped the game (among with many others) again earlier this year. At the time, Maverick said that development was continuing as planned as it looked for a new publishing partner, and following teasers earlier this week that certainly appeared to be the case.
Now the game has its title and a launch window, Maverick Games has given us a first look at Clutch as it winds up the hype for 2027:
Describing Clutch as a “cinematic open-world action-driving game”, this first glance at what MG has presented looks more like Fast & Furious than it does Forza Horizon.
The title seems to be set almost entirely on the Mediterranean coast, mostly the French Riviera, with shots of roads that look inspired by famous routes like La Turbie (also used in the movie Ronin, famous for its car chases) and the Col de Turini. There’s a variety of European and Japanese performance cars (and a Land Rover Defender), all sporting French-format registration plates.
There appears to be three cores to the driving component of the game. The first is the “R1K Riviera”, a sanctioned racing series that, in the in-game narrative, is an “historic” series that has been producing top drivers for a century. Alongside that is a night-time underground series called the Midnight Collective. However, they’re not entirely separate entities, with the story promising that the main characters — siblings who are “racing prodigies” — will find themselves in trouble, exposing a darker side to R1K.
That probably leads into the third string we saw in the pre-announcement teaser: heists. Although not fully clear from the footage, it appears to show one of the main characters engaging in something akin to a ram-raid in a Porsche 911 Cabriolet, while there’s also a chase as an Aston Martin Vantage is pursued through a galleria by the cops in an Alfa Romeo Stelvio.
While Maverick notes that it has created its own physics engine for Clutch, these driving sequences do show that the title tilts more towards exciting than outright realism. Cars appear to shrug off some pretty major impacts and leap through the air with not much by way of consequence, in a very movie-oriented manner. A grappling hook sequence featuring an R34 Skyline is of particular note.
Of course that does give us some flashbacks to pretty poor fare like Fast & Furious: Crossroads, but Maverick promises that the various action sequences in the game are only set up rather than predetermined, and players can look forward to an “open-world sandbox” that “unleashes blockbuster action and unscripted chaos” every time.
The overall goal of Clutch then is for players to compete in the various race series for reputation and ranking. Meanwhile the story sees them placed into various missions as part of different crews and “shifting alliances”, all set against a multiplayer backdrop in what Maverick calls “a living PvPvE action-driving world” (Player vs Player vs Environment).
It’s not just about driving either, as there’s a pretty extensive vehicle modification and personalisation system at play. Maverick notes that it’s more than just colours and body parts, with a custom version of Unreal Engine 5 allowing for high-level recreation of cars inside and out right down to coffee cups.
That’s not an exaggeration either, with the concept video showing your drinks being swapped in the cupholder. Naturally that’s alongside larger details like wheels, wings, and underglow, while we can also spot nitrous in the trailer too. And that grappling hook…
There’ll be plenty more to come from Maverick Games on Clutch over the coming months, beginning with an official trailer at Summer Games Fest on June 5th. With a launch date pencilled in for Spring 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC, we’re looking at less than 12 months to launch.