The studio a lot of us have been quietly keeping tabs on since 2022 finally has something to show.
Maverick Games, the independent UK outfit founded by former Forza Horizon creative director Mike Brown, has pulled the covers off its debut title. It’s called Clutch, it’s a cinematic open-world driving game, and it’s heading to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in spring 2027.
After everything this project has been through, it’s good to see it finally come to fruition.
The Road Here
We first covered this team when Mike Brown left Playground Games to start his own studio, and again when Maverick partnered with Amazon Games in 2024 to build a narrative-led driving game.
That Amazon deal is no longer in place after the publisher walked back its agreement earlier this year as part of a wider pullback from its games business, leaving Maverick to go it alone. Fortunately, the studio was able to keep the rights to the game, and development has carried on regardless.
This reveal is the payoff for a project that lost its publisher and came out the other side independent.
What Is Clutch?
At its heart, Clutch is built around a story. It follows two sibling racing prodigies competing in the R1K, a fictional series Maverick frames as a century-old proving ground for the world’s best drivers.
Running underneath that polished pro circuit is the Midnight Collective, an underground scene built around style and the raw thrill of speed. When the lead character lands in trouble and needs a fixer, the line between those two worlds breaks down. The story is being written by Jamie Brittain, co-creator of the British TV series Skins, a detail we reported when the Amazon deal was first announced.
Maverick describes the result as a living PvPvE open world (players against players against the environment) that mixes handcrafted missions with spontaneous race-and-chase chaos. Brown’s stated goal is to push the open-world driving genre somewhere new rather than iterate on the formula he helped build at Playground.
First-Look Footage
We got an early sneak peek at footage from the game, and it certainly looks the part. Environments are expansive, the car models are sharp, and the European setting does what an expensive-cars-in-pretty-places backdrop always does for a driving game.
It feels like Clutch has an edgier tone than the Forza Horizon franchise ever leaned into. The footage points to a “legitimate racing by day, street racing by night” structure, which should give both the car culture and the mission variety somewhere interesting to go.
Customization Looks Deep
The studio says personalization runs deeper than paint and bolt-on parts, down to the small details of actually owning a car. From the early footage, that includes:
- A Land Rover Defender kitted out with a snorkel, a side-mounted exterior gear carrier, mudflaps, and a range of wheels
- A Porsche Cayman GT4 cycling through a wide selection of wing types
- A Nissan 350Z with different exhaust setups and a front aero piece
- Underglow and nitrous, both of which Forza Horizon never offered
- Swappable steering wheels and seats
- Dashboard clutter you can place and position yourself (loose paper, a little stuffed toy car), plus clothing tossed in the passenger seat
- A choice of items to hang from the rearview mirror
And, my personal favorite: it appears you can choose the drink in your car’s cupholders.
It’s the kind of detail that suggests the team understands the difference between customizing a car and making one feel like your own.
There Is a Heist?
One sequence in the footage makes the gameplay influences pretty obvious. There’s a clear heist setup, with an Aston Martin tearing out of a luxury villa in the south of France while police in Alfa Romeo Stelvios give chase, lights and sirens blazing.
It also makes something else clear: like Forza Horizon, Clutch doesn’t seem too interested in damage or consequences. During the chase, cars launch hundreds of feet through the air and just keep driving. If you were hoping the “action” half of “action-driving” meant a more grounded simulation, this isn’t it. Expect a lot of common ground with Forza Horizon on the physics front.
The most eyebrow-raising moment is an R34 Nissan GT-R deploying some kind of James Bond-style grappling line to sling itself through corners. Make of that what you will!
What’s Next?
Maverick says a proper look at the story, the cast, the world, and the stakes is coming at the Summer Game Fest Showcase on Friday, June 5, so we should learn a lot more about the campaign side in just a few days.
For now, the takeaway is straightforward. A proven team has a promising open-world driving game, a clear point of view, and an independent path to spring 2027. On this first showing, Clutch looks like the most serious competition Forza Horizon 6 is going to face.
