It did not look like a happy ending was in the cards for Maverick Games when Amazon ended its publishing deal for the studio’s in-development racing game earlier this year. But that assessment may have been premature, as the studio has now unveiled its debut project, Clutch, and has a full trailer coming in the Summer Game Fest showcase on June 5.
“This is a game about the love of driving, about the connection between car and driver, and the raw thrill of speed,” Maverick Games co-founder Mike Brown says in the reveal video. Brown is the former creative director of Forza Horizon studio Playground Games, so he knows a thing or two about racing games.
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“Clutch is the story of a pair of sibling racing prodigies competing in the R1K racing series,” Brown continues. “The R1K is a prestigious and historic series that’s been the proving ground of the world’s best drivers for 100 years. But away from the pomp and the pageantry and commercialism of the R1K is the Midnight Collective, a group of car enthusiasts who don’t care about the money and the fame of the R1K. They care about the love of driving and the raw thrill of speed.”
You can probably see where this is going, right?
“In the early part of our game, our hero gets himself into a spot of trouble—a spot of trouble that leads him to look up the services of a fixer. And in doing so, we smash open the doors to the underworld beneath the glitz and the glamour of the R1K.”
Brown touches on a few more points about Clutch in the video—it will have an open world component, cars will be upgradeable with “Clutch Tech mods,” that sort of thing—but other details, including the game’s setting and cast, and being held back for the Summer Game Fest reveal—that showcase is set to get underway at 2 pm PT/5 pm ET on June 5.
