Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay within the walls of Electronic Arts. He started at the company in 1990 and spent nearly twenty years contributing to the Burnout and Need for Speed franchises while they were under the Criterion umbrella, a studio EA acquired in 2004. Yet in early 2023, Webster, together with fellow Criterion alumni Steve Uphill, Pete Lake, Andrei Shires and Alan McDairmant, decided to strike out on their own and launch the independent UK studio Fuse Games. Just over three years later the fledgling company is poised to release its debut title, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, which will be published by the newly independent label Secret Mode.
Galactic Racer arrives roughly 24 years after the last Star Wars‑themed racing game, the 2002 release Racer Revenge, and it does so at a time when the racing genre has generally lost some of its mainstream appeal. Recent industry headlines illustrate this shift: Amazon walked away from a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for the upcoming driving title Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis stating that the market simply didn’t have room for another racer.
Meanwhile Criterion, once a powerhouse of arcade‑style racing, has redirected its talent toward the Battlefield franchise. Despite these signals, Webster remains convinced there is still a viable audience for a Star Wars racing experience. "Clearly we 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 our videos and articles suggests we’re not alone." He argues that video‑game genres are cyclical.
After a period dominated by shooters, other styles inevitably resurface, especially as the overall player base expands. "The more people play games, the more even the tiniest niches can find a larger audience," Webster said. According to Webster, gamers today are craving "fun, interesting, compelling new experiences that they haven’t seen before," and he believes Galactic Racer delivers exactly that.
The studio set out to capture the instant gratification of classic arcade racers while also exploring what can be done when you’re no longer limited by realistic tires and tarmac. "We have tracks that climb the side of an active volcano – it’s a roller‑coaster at times," he explained, highlighting the game’s willingness to embrace over‑the‑top, physics‑defying environments. Beyond the high‑octane thrills, Galactic Racer aims to upend long‑standing conventions of the racing genre. Traditionally, racing games revolve around collecting cars, a formula that hasn’t fundamentally changed in two decades.
Webster wants to tear that model apart and borrow mechanics from other genres. One of the most striking innovations is the introduction of meaningful consequences for crashing. In many modern racers, a rewind button nullifies mistakes, making crashes feel inconsequential.
Fuse Games decided to re‑introduce risk: repeated crashes send the player back to the start, though some meta‑progression carries over, granting a slightly stronger position on the next attempt. This creates tension, especially when a player is on their final allowed crash and must weigh the risk of pushing harder. The design philosophy also draws heavily from roguelike titles such as Hades, Returnal and Slay the Spire—games built around infinite replayability.
"Racing thrives on replayability, so combining it with roguelike structures feels like a match made in heaven," Webster noted. The idea is that each run feels fresh, with procedural elements and persistent upgrades encouraging players to keep coming back, even after failure.
Launching the game on October 6 places it in a crowded autumn window, sandwiched between massive releases like Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall (both on September 24) and the highly anticipated GTA 6 slated for November 19. Webster acknowledges the competition but points out that the industry has long dealt with busy release schedules. He recalls past years when September was dubbed “murderer’s row,” yet developers still managed to carve out success.
Fuse Games approaches the market with a “healthy sense of confidence” tempered by a realistic appraisal of how the title might perform. When asked about the wave of layoffs sweeping the industry, Webster reflected on his long tenure and the earlier round of cuts fifteen years ago.
He believes great teams produce great games, and great games find audiences. However, he also sees a growing aversion to risk among publishers, which he views as an opening for studios willing to take calculated bets. "If you’re not willing to make those bets, you limit opportunity," he said.
Funding an independent studio in 2023 has not been easy. Webster describes the challenge of convincing investors that a small, newly formed team could deliver a AAA‑scale title. After 32 years at EA, he found himself stepping out of a corporate bubble into a world where building a great team, refining a clear creative vision, and maintaining disciplined planning are essential. He emphasizes that plans are always provisional, but they provide the best roadmap available at any given moment.
Adaptation, review, and staying true to core values are, in his view, the keys to constructing a motivated, high‑performing team. Fuse Games remains relatively lean for a project of this scope, employing roughly 75 people. This size is intentional; the studio wants to avoid the industry’s typical “grow‑shrink‑grow‑shrink” cycle. Instead, Fuse relies heavily on external development partners to fill skill gaps.
This hybrid model blends transactional outsourcing for asset creation with deeper co‑development relationships where external studios participate in daily stand‑ups, Slack channels, and even share codebases. Webster highlights the UK’s mature development ecosystem as a fertile ground for such collaboration, noting that today’s studios are more eager to work together than in the past, when companies often helped each other reluctantly just to keep the lights on. Webster believes this approach demonstrates that a AAA‑level game—judged by scope, visual fidelity and production values—can be built on a sustainable budget when a core team is complemented by trusted partners who share the same values.
The rapid development timeline of Galactic Racer underscores this point. Fuse was founded in January 2023; three and a half years later the team has built a studio, assembled a workforce, and created a game on Unreal Engine 5—a technology none of them originally mastered. "It feels like an achievement, and we’ve done it in a healthy, sustainable way," he said. The studio’s talent mix also reflects a deliberate strategy.
Alongside the Criterion veterans, Fuse has recruited many younger developers, even hiring a producer with no prior gaming experience. Webster praises this fresh perspective, stating that the younger staff often outperform more senior hires in both intelligence and effectiveness. He argues that seasoned developers sometimes prefer to work with equally senior colleagues who need minimal guidance, which can stifle mentorship.
By nurturing young talent, Fuse not only motivates its workforce but also creates a pipeline for future growth. Webster envisions an intern program to formalize this pipeline, though he cautions that the studio is still pre‑revenue and must be realistic about the costs involved. Looking back to a period five or six years ago when the industry was flush with capital, Webster recalls how many successful developers were handed funding to start their own studios, only to discover that building a sustainable operation is far tougher than anticipated. He criticizes the industry’s lingering fascination with the “single creative visionary” myth, calling it "bullshit" and emphasizing that games are fundamentally collaborative endeavors.
As for Fuse’s next steps, Webster admits the future is still being charted. The launch of Galactic Racer is just the beginning, and the studio remains open to new opportunities and collaborations.
He stresses that independent developers must stay flexible and adaptable in a rapidly changing market. While the exact direction after the launch remains uncertain, the team’s confidence in their model, their commitment to innovative design, and their belief in the power of diverse, youthful talent suggest that Fuse Games will continue to push boundaries in the years to come.