Clutch is an upcoming cinematic open world racing title featuring both underground and professional street racing, and even though it sports one or more similarity to the highly acclaimed Forza Horizon series of arcade racers, the game intends to offer a more complimentary racing experience for players, according to developer Maverick Games. In a recent interview with The Game Business (via IdleSloth84_ on X), the developers of Clutch believe the narrative of the upcoming racer to be starkly different and distinguishing than the one in Forza 6.
“We’re not so silly as to claim that we’re going to kill Forza Horizon. Any game maker where their pitch is to usurp the dominant market leader, that’s a really high risk,” they explained.
“If we swap genres and say ‘we’re going to kill Call of Duty’, no one’s going to give you money to do that because it’s stupid. CLUTCH was always intended to be complementary to Forza.
“There’s obviously gameplay in our game that is similar, you still drive beautiful cars around gorgeous environments, but Forza’s never really been about character and story. It’s something that the franchise has historically been fairly weak on, but it’s a thing that gamers and people love.
“Adding that in to this genre in a way that, strangely, hadn’t really been done, certainly not recently, and certainly not well, I think has a really broad appeal.
“If you’ve been playing Forza Horizon 6 and having a great time, you’ll probably install CLUTCH and realize that it’s offering you a familiar experience in some areas, but then a ton of different stuff that the other game isn’t offering.”
It seems Clutch will offer more of a realistic, simulation-like experience than the pure arcade racing flavor of gameplay delivered by the Forza Horizon series of titles. Also, check out the game’s reveal trailer to get a closer look at what it’ll be about when it comes out next year: