New UK-based racing studio Maverick Games has offered a first look at the setting, characters, and narrative of its upcoming open-world action-driving game Clutch during the Summer Game Fest 2026 showcase.
Clutch's open world draws inspiration from the iconic Mediterranean coastline of the French Riviera. The studio's official announcement highlighted that it will feature miles of diverse roads and terrain, allowing players to “weave through vibrant city streets, conquer dramatic mountain switchbacks and unleash top speed on breathtaking coastal highways.”
“Clutch is set in Monaco and the surrounding French Riviera,” Maverick Games founder Mike Brown told IGN. “We’ve built a version of Monaco that is actually larger than real-life Monaco. So Monaco, known for being quite dense and tight, we’ve allowed our level designers to add a little bit of space here and there – but every main road, every main landmark is present and correct. But the actual footprint of the space is larger than real-life Monaco.
“And then that’s surrounded by a sprawling French Riviera that goes up as high as the Alps and out to the Verdon Gorge, and then as far to the west as Saint-Tropez. We have three city hubs along the coast; you’ve got Monaco, and then Cannes, and then Saint-Tropez. So a huge world to explore and one that, we think, everywhere you go there’s real beautiful things to explore and see.”
The studio also debuted a story trailer for Clutch, detailing how its characters navigate three distinct worlds: professional circuit racing, a nighttime underground street racing scene, and intense high-speed pursuits and getaways. With a script by Scottish TV writer Jamie Brittain (co-creator of the acclaimed British teen drama Skins), Clutch follows the story of Theo Martial and his younger sister, Cass. Guided by his adoptive father Ludo, Theo is a star driver in the prestigious Riviera 1000 racing tournament (the R1K), considered the most important event in all motorsport. Ludo is a former champion of the tournament.
However, after a tragic accident on the track rocks the R1K, its current custodian George McBride plans to introduce new technology to prevent further incidents. This controversial plan divides the drivers and eventually leads Theo to the Midnight Collective, an underground street racing community in the area, and into trouble that leaves him owing favors to the wrong sort of people. It's at this point that Theo discovers a conspiracy at the heart of the R1K.
In Clutch, players will race as both Theo (played by Tosin Cole, known for Supacell and Doctor Who) and Cass (played by Little Simz, known for Top Boy and Venom: Let There Be Carnage).
“Depending on how much of a fan of UK hip hop you are will determine how excited you are about that inclusion,” jokes Brown. “But Little Simz is basically the biggest name in UK hip hop at the moment – probably the biggest female rapper in the world – and she’s also a great actor. If you’ve seen Top Boy, she plays the love interest of the main character, she was in the second Venom movie, she had a movie on Netflix last year called Steve where she starred alongside Cillian Murphy, and she also played Glastonbury main stage, as well. She was also at Coachella as well, a few weeks ago, so she’s a very, very big talent in both screen and on stage.”
French actor Grégory Montel stars as the pair's father Ludo, and Peter Serafinowicz (known from Shaun of the Dead and as The Sommelier in John Wick: Chapter 2) plays R1K boss George McBride. Clutch also features Jane Perry, the BAFTA award-winning voice of the lead character in 2021's Returnal and Agent 47's handler Diana Burnwood in the most recent Hitman trilogy. She also voiced the in-car navigation in the first two Forza Horizon games, a humorous coincidence given Clutch's proximity to Forza Horizon 2 (also set on a segment of the French Riviera centered around Nice).
It's an entertaining coincidence that Clutch and Forza Horizon 2 are such close neighbors, considering developer Maverick Games itself is within walking distance of Forza Horizon developer Playground Games.
“In this specific area, it all does kinda flower originally out of Codemasters,” explains Brown, formerly of Playground Games, where he worked on several Forza Horizon titles and was creative director of Forza Horizon 5. “There is/was a massive developer [and] publisher just outside Leamington Spa that employed loads and loads of people, and built many, many very good racing games, and then that just builds a level of talent that then can flower out and start new studios, and it’s kinda grown out of that.
“It is unusual and it’s unique. I don’t think there’s anything really else like it anywhere in the world, or in the games industry, where you can point to one thing – in this case, Codemasters – that then just leads to this growth and growth in what is actually quite a specialised thing, in racing games. It’s not just in video games, it is actually racing. Because there’s even Sumo Leamington, which is slightly different, but still in racing. Even these other studios that you might not immediately think of are still in Leamington doing racing, or racing adjacent work.
“Anywhere else in the world, if you tell people you’re a game designer, they’re like, ‘Bloody hell, that’s interesting! What’s that like?’ In this town, if you say you work in the games industry, it’s like, ‘Yeah, obviously.’ It’s as normal as saying you’re a geography teacher.”
Maverick Games first revealed Clutch earlier this week. Described as a “cinematic open-world action-driving game,” Clutch is set to launch in Spring 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
For a recap of everything announced at Summer Game Fest 2026, check out our full coverage.
