Maverick Game’s Open-World Racer Clutch Is Set on the French Riviera, Features Monaco

New UK racing workplace Maverick Games has revealed a archetypal look astatine the location, characters, and communicative of its upcoming open-world action-driving crippled Clutch during the Summer Game Fest 2026 showcase.

Clutch’s open-world satellite is inspired by the iconic Mediterranean coastline of the French Riviera, with the authoritative announcement from the workplace stating it volition diagnostic miles of divers roads and terrain, and that players volition beryllium capable to “weave done vibrant metropolis streets, conquer melodramatic upland switchbacks and unleash apical velocity connected breathtaking coastal highways.”

“Clutch is acceptable successful Monaco and the surrounding French Riviera,” Maverick Games laminitis Mike Brown tells IGN. “We’ve built a mentation of Monaco that is really larger than real-life Monaco. So Monaco, known for being rather dense and tight, we’ve allowed our level designers to adhd a small spot of abstraction present and determination – but each main road, each main landmark is contiguous and correct. But the existent footprint of the abstraction is larger than real-life Monaco.

“And past that’s surrounded by a sprawling French Riviera that goes up arsenic precocious arsenic the Alps and retired to the Verdon Gorge, and past arsenic acold to the westbound arsenic Saint-Tropez. We person 3 metropolis hubs on the coast; you’ve got Monaco, and past Cannes, and past Saint-Tropez. So a immense satellite to research and 1 that, we think, everyplace you spell there’s existent beauteous things to research and see.”

The workplace has besides debuted a communicative trailer for Clutch, and elaborate however its characters find themselves straddling a trio of antithetic worlds, including nonrecreational circuit racing, a nighttime underground thoroughfare racing scene, and intense, high-speed pursuits and getaways. With a publication by Scottish TV writer Jamie Brittain (the co-creator of acclaimed British teen play Skins), Clutch is the communicative of Theo Martial and his younger sister, Cass. With the guidance of his adoptive begetter Ludo, Theo is simply a prima operator successful the revered Riviera 1000 racing tourney – the R1K. For the purposes of Clutch, the R1K is the astir prestigious lawsuit successful each motorsport, and Ludo is simply a erstwhile champion of the tournament.

After the R1K is rocked by a tragic mishap connected track, however, its existent custodian George McBride plans to present caller exertion to forestall immoderate further incidents. This arguable program splits the drivers, and yet leads Theo to the Midnight Collective – the underground thoroughfare racing assemblage based successful the country – and into an adjacent spot of occupation that leaves him owing favours to the incorrect benignant of people. It’s astatine this point, however, that Theo discovers a conspiracy astatine the bosom of the R1K.

During Clutch we’ll contention arsenic some Theo, played by Tosin Cole (Supacell, Doctor Who), and Cass, played by Little Simz (Top Boy, Venom: Let There Be Carnage).

“Depending connected however overmuch of a instrumentality of UK hep hop you are volition find however excited you are astir that inclusion,” jokes Brown. “But Little Simz is fundamentally the biggest sanction successful UK hep hop astatine the infinitesimal – astir apt the biggest pistillate rapper successful the satellite – and she’s besides a large actor. If you’ve seen Top Boy, she plays the emotion involvement of the main character, she was successful the 2nd Venom movie, she had a movie connected Netflix past twelvemonth called Steve wherever she starred alongside Cillian Murphy, and she besides played Glastonbury main stage, arsenic well. She was besides astatine Coachella arsenic well, a fewer weeks ago, truthful she’s a very, precise large endowment successful some surface and connected stage.”

French histrion Grégory Montel stars arsenic the pair’s begetter Ludo, and Peter Serafinowicz (who you whitethorn callback from Shaun of the Dead, oregon arsenic The Sommelier successful John Wick: Chapter 2) features arsenic R1K brag George McBride. Clutch volition besides diagnostic Jane Perry, who is the BAFTA award-winning dependable of the pb quality successful 2021’s Returnal, arsenic good arsenic Agent 47’s handler Diana Burnwood successful the astir caller Hitman trilogy. She was besides the dependable of the in-car navigation successful the archetypal 2 Forza Horizon games, which is humorous considering however adjacent Clutch’s satellite finds itself to Forza Horizon 2 (which was besides acceptable connected a conception of the French Riviera, centred astir Nice.

It’s an entertaining coincidence that Clutch and Forza Horizon 2 find themselves specified adjacent neighbours, considering developer Maverick Games itself is wrong walking region of Forza Horizon developer Playground Games.

“In this circumstantial area, it each does kinda angiosperm primitively retired of Codemasters,” explains Brown, formerly of Playground Games, wherever helium worked connected a fig of Forza Horizon games and was the originative manager of Forza Horizon 5. “There is/was a monolithic developer [and] steadfast conscionable extracurricular Leamington Spa that employed loads and loads of people, and built many, galore precise bully racing games, and past that conscionable builds a level of endowment that past tin angiosperm retired and commencement caller studios, and it’s kinda grown retired of that.

“It is antithetic and it’s unique. I don’t deliberation there’s thing truly other similar it anyplace successful the world, oregon successful the games industry, wherever you tin constituent to 1 happening – successful this case, Codemasters – that past conscionable leads to this maturation and maturation successful what is really rather a specialised thing, successful racing games. It’s not conscionable successful video games, it is really racing. Because there’s adjacent Sumo Leamington, which is somewhat different, but inactive successful racing. Even these different studios that you mightiness not instantly deliberation of are inactive successful Leamington doing racing, oregon racing adjacent work.

“Anywhere other successful the world, if you archer radical you’re a crippled designer, they’re like, ‘Bloody hell, that’s interesting! What’s that like?’ In this town, if you accidental you enactment successful the games industry, it’s like, ‘Yeah, obviously.’ It’s arsenic mean arsenic saying you’re a geography teacher.”

Maverick Games revealed Clutch for the archetypal clip earlier this week. Described arsenic a “cinematic open-world action-driving game,” Clutch volition motorboat successful Spring 2027 connected PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Here's everything announced astatine Summer Game Fest 2026 if you request a drawback up connected what other the video crippled manufacture has successful store.

Luke is simply a Senior Editor connected the IGN reviews team. You tin way him down connected Bluesky @mrlukereilly to inquire him things astir stuff.