Game: CLUTCH
Developer: Maverick Games (Royal Leamington Spa, UK)
Publisher: Focus Entertainment
Genre: Open-World Action Driving
Release: Spring 2027
Platforms: PC · PS5 · Xbox Series X|S
Writer: Jamie Brittain (Skins)
Studio Founded: 2022
🏎️ Focus Entertainment have signed a publishing partnership with Maverick Games for CLUTCH, an open-world action-driving game arriving Spring 2027 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S — and the studio behind it is built from the people who made Forza Horizon.
🏁 This Is Forza Horizon’s Creative Director Building a Rival
Maverick Games was founded in 2022 by Mike Brown — former creative director of Forza Horizon 5, and lead designer on Forza Horizon 2, 3 and 4.
That’s not “veterans of the racing genre” in the vague sense PR usually means. That’s essentially the entire modern run of the series that has defined open-world racing for a decade, now assembled into an independent studio making its own take on the same space. The team around him is described as veteran developers with decades of combined experience on acclaimed open-world racers.
Whatever CLUTCH turns out to be, the people making it know exactly what they’re competing with.
Professional motorsport by day. Something else entirely by night.
CLUTCH casts you as part of a new generation of racing outsiders leading a double life — competing at the highest level of professional motorsport during the day, and disappearing into an underground world of racing, reputation and pursuit after dark.
It’s the debut title from Maverick Games, and Focus Entertainment have just signed on to publish it.
Two Racing Games in One Premise
☀️ By Day
Sanctioned competition at the highest level of professional motorsport — the legitimate career, with everything that comes attached to it.
🌃 By Night
A dangerous underground scene built on racing, reputation and pursuit — with rather different rules and rather different consequences.
That split is doing more work than it first appears. The two halves of open-world racing have historically belonged to different franchises — sanctioned, celebratory competition on one side; illegal street racing and police pursuit on the other — and CLUTCH is proposing to run both simultaneously as one character’s life.
It also gives the game a reason for a story. A double life implies things to hide, people to keep apart and a point where the two collide, which is a considerably firmer narrative foundation than most driving games start from.
They Hired the Co-Creator of Skins
✍️ Jamie Brittain Is Writing the Story
The original story for CLUTCH comes from Jamie Brittain, co-creator of Skins — the British teen drama built on messy, character-driven ensemble writing.
Racing games essentially never hire dramatists. When one claims “character-driven, cinematic storytelling,” it usually means a few voiced cutscenes between events. Bringing in the person behind Skins is a much more concrete signal of intent, and it makes the day/night double life read less like a structural gimmick and more like a premise chosen because someone wanted to write about it.
Alongside the story, Maverick are promising deep vehicle customisation — framed as a means of self-expression and a driver of progression rather than a cosmetic layer, which fits a game about identity and reputation rather neatly.
Focus’s First Open-World Racer
🎯 A Genre Expansion for the Publisher
Focus Entertainment describe CLUTCH as their first entry into the open-world racing space, with the stated ambition of establishing it as a major new racing IP.
Focus’s catalogue leans heavily on narrative-driven action and strategy — A Plague Tale, the Warhammer titles, Atomic Heart. Moving into open-world racing is a genuine expansion, and the fact they’re doing it via a partnership with Horizon veterans rather than an internal project says something about how seriously they’re taking the entry.
At Focus, we look to partner with creators who are redefining their genre. Mike Brown and his team are regarded as one of the defining creative voices in the racing genre, and CLUTCH embodies exactly the creative ambition Focus Entertainment wants to champion.
— Vincent Chataignier, Deputy CEO, Focus Entertainment Publishing
We founded Maverick Games to build the open-world racing experience we’d dreamed about for years. Focus shares our creative bar and our ambition for CLUTCH, and we can’t wait for players everywhere to discover this world.
— Mike Brown, Founder & CEO, Maverick Games
Spring 2027, Three Platforms
🖥️ PC (Steam)
🎮 PlayStation 5
🟩 Xbox Series X|S
Spring 2027 is a long runway, which is about right for a debut AAA title from a studio founded in 2022. The Steam page is already live for anyone wanting to wishlist early.
🏎️ Open-World Racing
🎬 Cinematic
📖 Story Rich
🔧 Customisation
🌃 Underground
🏁 Motorsport
Who’s Making It
🇬🇧 Maverick Games
An independent AAA studio based in Royal Leamington Spa — the heart of the UK’s “Silicon Spa” games cluster and long the centre of British racing-game development. Founded in 2022 by Mike Brown, formerly creative director on Forza Horizon 5 and lead designer across Forza Horizon 2, 3 and 4. CLUTCH is their debut.
🎯 Focus Entertainment
A French publisher with a catalogue built on narrative-led action and strategy. We’ve covered two of their titles recently — Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy and the upcoming BioEden.
Setting up in Royal Leamington Spa is itself worth noting. The town is the densest concentration of racing-game talent in the UK, which makes it a logical place to build a studio staffed with people who’ve spent a decade making exactly this kind of game.
CLUTCH arrives in Spring 2027 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Hi there! I’m Marie, also known as CtrlQueen. I’m passionate about keeping up with the latest in gaming news and sharing my insights. RPGs steal my heart with their rich narratives and immersive worlds, but I also love unwinding with fun, casual games. Whether you’re here for deep dives into game mechanics or just to chat about your favorite casual game, you’ve found the right place! Let’s game and explore together.
