Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay at Electronic Arts forever. He started at the company in 1990 and spent nearly twenty years developing titles for the Criterion team that EA acquired in 2004, working on beloved franchises such as Burnout and Need for Speed. In early 2023, however, Webster and a handful of fellow Criterion alumni—Steve Uphill, Pete Lake, Andrei Shires, and Alan McDairmant—decided to strike out on their own and launch Fuse Games, an independent studio based in the United Kingdom. Just over three years later the fledgling studio is poised to ship its debut title, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, under the banner of the newly independent publisher Secret Mode.
Galactic Racer arrives roughly 24 years after the last Star Wars‑themed racing game, 2002’s Racer Revenge, and it does so at a moment when the racing genre has generally receded from the spotlight. Amazon recently walked away from a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for the upcoming driving title Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis explaining that the market simply didn’t seem to need another racer. Criterion itself has shifted its focus away from car‑based games toward the Battlefield franchise. Despite these signals, Webster remains convinced that a demand exists for a Star Wars racing experience.
“We clearly think there’s an audience for a Star Wars racing game,” he told GamesIndustry.biz. “We’re not the only ones who feel that way, and the response we get from people watching our videos or reading our articles suggests we’re not alone.” He points out that gaming genres tend to be cyclical. After a period dominated by shooters, other types of games inevitably return to prominence as the player base expands and even the smallest niches find larger follow‑ups.
Webster believes gamers are hungry for "fun, interesting, compelling new experiences that they haven’t seen before," and he sees Galactic Racer as delivering exactly that. The studio’s vision is to blend the instant‑gratification feel of classic arcade racers with imaginative, physics‑defying track design made possible now that the game is untethered from real‑world tyres and tarmac. "Imagine a course that climbs the side of an active volcano or feels like a roller‑coaster at times," he explains.
Those over‑the‑top environments are meant to capture the thrill of arcade play while also pushing the boundaries of what a racing game can look like. Beyond the visual spectacle, Galactic Racer deliberately subverts long‑standing genre conventions.
Most racing games have relied on a car‑collection model for the past two decades, a formula Webster describes as "stale" and ready for disruption. He wants to borrow mechanics from other genres, especially roguelikes, to inject fresh strategic depth. The game incorporates meaningful consequences for player actions, such as crashes, which in many modern racers are mitigated by rewind features that erase any penalty. In Galactic Racer, a crash can send you back to the start of a run, though you retain a portion of your meta‑progression, putting you in a more powerful position for the next attempt.
This risk‑reward loop forces players to weigh aggression against caution, echoing the tension found in titles like Hades, Returnal, and Slay the Spire, where endless replayability is a core design pillar. Webster acknowledges that this approach is a bold departure from the hand‑holding typical of many AAA releases, especially in a year when heavyweight titles such as GTA 6 are slated for launch. Galactic Racer’s release date—October 6—places it comfortably before GTA 6’s November 19 debut, yet still amid a crowded September‑October window that includes releases like Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall.
"People always say September looks busy, but I remember the old ‘Murderer’s Row’ of October releases years ago," Webster says. "We’re aware of the competition, but we have a healthy confidence tempered by a realistic view of how things might unfold." The conversation turns to the broader industry climate, especially the wave of layoffs that has swept through studios in recent months. Webster, who has witnessed a similar contraction about fifteen years ago, emphasizes that great teams make great games, and great games find audiences. He argues that the current risk‑averse environment actually creates opportunities for developers willing to take calculated bets.
However, he also notes that securing funding for an independent studio in 2023 has been “a real challenge.” After three decades at EA, Webster found himself navigating a new reality where investors view independent ventures with skepticism. To mitigate financial strain, Fuse Games has adopted a lean core‑team model.
The studio consists of roughly 75 full‑time staff—a size more typical of a mid‑tier developer than a traditional AAA powerhouse. Rather than expanding and contracting the internal staff repeatedly, Fuse relies heavily on external partners for additional capacity. This hybrid approach ranges from transactional outsourcing for asset creation to deep co‑development relationships where outside studios join daily stand‑ups, share Slack channels, and contribute directly to the code base. Webster highlights the United Kingdom’s mature game‑development ecosystem as a fertile ground for such collaborations, noting that many UK studios now willingly partner on external projects rather than hoarding talent for their own internal pipelines.
Webster believes this model could become a blueprint for sustainable AAA‑scale production: a small, permanent nucleus supplemented by trusted, value‑aligned partners when extra manpower is needed. "You can deliver a game with AAA scope, scale, and visual fidelity on a more sustainable budget this way," he asserts, adding that the rapid development timeline of Galactic Racer—just three and a half years from studio inception to launch—demonstrates the viability of the approach. Another striking aspect of Fuse’s strategy is its emphasis on nurturing young talent.
While the studio’s leadership includes several Criterion veterans, many of its developers are newcomers to the industry, and at least one producer had never worked on a game before joining Fuse. Webster praises the fresh perspectives and efficiency of these younger team members, stating that they have often outperformed more seasoned hires.
He observes that senior developers sometimes prefer working with peers who require minimal mentorship, a dynamic that can stifle growth. By deliberately recruiting and empowering younger staff, Fuse aims to create an environment where mentorship and skill development are core to the studio’s culture.
Looking ahead, Webster hopes to formalize an internship program to further cultivate emerging talent, though he acknowledges that Fuse is still pre‑revenue and must be cautious with resource allocation. He draws on Criterion’s successful intern pipelines as an aspirational model, emphasizing that developing talent comes with a cost that must be recognized upfront. Reflecting on a period a few years ago when the industry was flush with capital, Webster recalls how many developers who had delivered hit titles were handed funding to start their own studios, only to discover that running a company is far more difficult than creating a game.
He argues that money should be directed toward strong teams rather than singular “creative visionaries,” a notion he calls “bullshit” when taken to the extreme. "Games are made by collaborations of individuals," he insists, underscoring the collective nature of game development.
As for Fuse’s next steps after Galactic Racer’s launch, Webster remains deliberately vague. He notes that the studio has ideas for future projects and is open to exploring partnerships, but stresses that flexibility and adaptability are essential for independent developers in today’s market. The overarching message is clear: by combining a focused core team, strategic external collaboration, and a willingness to experiment with genre conventions, Fuse Games aims to prove that ambitious, high‑quality experiences can thrive outside the traditional AAA framework.