Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay within Electronic Arts. He started at the company in 1990 and spent nearly twenty years contributing to the Burnout and Need for Speed franchises while working at Criterion, the studio EA acquired in 2004.
In early 2023, however, Webster teamed up with former Criterion colleagues Steve Uphill, Pete Lake, Andrei Shires and Alan McDairmant to launch an independent UK studio called Fuse Games. 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 autonomous 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 time when the racing genre has lost some of its mainstream appeal. Amazon recently cancelled a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for the upcoming driving title Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis noting that the market simply didn’t seem to fit the project.
Meanwhile, Criterion itself has pivoted away from pure racing to focus on the Battlefield franchise. Despite these signals, Webster remains convinced there is still a viable audience 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.” Webster points out that gaming genres tend to be cyclical.
“We went through a period where shooters dominated everything,” he explains, “but that’s not the whole story. As more people play video games, even the tiniest niches can attract a larger following.” He believes players are hungry for “fun, interesting, compelling new experiences they haven’t seen before,” and he feels Galactic Racer delivers exactly that.
The design philosophy behind Fuse’s project embraces the instant gratification of classic arcade racers while also asking, “What can we do once we’re no longer limited by tyres and tarmac?” The answer, according to Webster, is tracks that climb the sides of active volcanoes, courses that feel like roller‑coasters, and other over‑the‑top set‑pieces that would be impossible in a realistic simulation. Yet the game is also intended to upend long‑standing racing conventions.
Traditional racers have relied on a static car‑collection model for the past two decades; Webster wants to tear that away and borrow mechanics from other genres. One of the most radical ideas is to re‑introduce meaningful consequences for crashing. In many modern racers a rewind button erases any penalty, but Galactic Racer will make crashes matter.
“If you crash too many times you’re sent back to the start,” Webster says, “but you keep some meta‑progression, so you begin from a slightly stronger position. That risk‑reward tension forces players to think about each mistake.” The system draws inspiration from roguelike titles such as Hades, Returnal and Slay the Spire—games built around infinite replayability. “Racing thrives on replayability, so marrying it with roguelike loops feels like a match made in heaven,” he adds.
Webster acknowledges that this approach represents a bold departure from the hand‑holding typical of many AAA releases. The timing of Galactic Racer’s launch—October 6—places it between a crowded September slate (including Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall) and the highly anticipated GTA 6 slated for November 19.
While some industry observers warned that September would be too busy, Webster recalls older eras when October was considered “murderer’s row.” He believes Fuse can still cut through the noise because the studio maintains “a healthy sense of confidence tempered by a realistic view of how things may turn out.” The conversation inevitably turns to the wave of layoffs sweeping the sector. Webster, who has witnessed a similar contraction a decade and a half ago, argues that great teams produce great games, and great games find audiences.
He sees the current risk‑averse climate as an opening for studios willing to take calculated bets. “When you avoid risk, you limit opportunity,” he says. “Those who are brave enough to push boundaries can capture the market share that larger, more cautious publishers leave behind.” Funding, however, has not been easy for the newly formed studio.
“People told me I was brave to start an independent studio in 2023,” Webster recalls. After 32 years at EA, he found himself in unfamiliar territory.
He leaned on principles he’d learned over his career: assemble a talented team, sharpen a creative vision, devise a disciplined plan (while accepting that the plan will inevitably be imperfect), and continuously review and adapt. “Engaged, motivated talent makes great things,” he emphasizes, noting that the studio currently numbers about 75 people—small for a AAA‑scale title. Fuse deliberately avoided the typical “grow‑shrink‑grow‑shrink” cycle that plagues many large developers. Instead, the studio built a lean core and supplemented it with external partners.
Outsourcing covers transactional asset creation, while co‑development brings external studios into Fuse’s daily stand‑ups, Slack channels, and codebase, effectively extending the internal team. The UK’s mature game‑development ecosystem makes this model especially viable; today, many companies hire developers eager to work across multiple projects, keeping the workforce fresh and enthusiastic.
Webster believes this hybrid model can deliver AAA‑level scope, scale and visual fidelity on a more sustainable budget. The rapid development timeline of Galactic Racer—just three and a half years from Fuse’s founding to a near‑complete UE5‑based product—demonstrates the approach’s effectiveness. “We started Fuse in January 2023, and now we have a studio, a team, and a game built on an engine none of us previously knew,” he says, “and we’ve done it in a healthy, sustainable way.” A notable aspect of Fuse’s workforce is the infusion of younger talent alongside the veteran Criterion alumni. Some team members, including a producer, have never worked in games before.
“Our young developers are often smarter and more effective than I was at their age,” Webster admits. He observes that seasoned developers sometimes prefer senior colleagues who can work independently, but that dynamic can hinder mentorship.
By pivoting hiring practices toward nurturing fresh talent, Fuse has discovered a competitive advantage. Looking ahead, Webster hopes to formalize an internship program to further cultivate emerging developers, though he acknowledges the studio is still pre‑revenue. He cites Criterion’s successful intern pipelines as a model and stresses the importance of entering such initiatives with eyes wide open about the costs involved. Reflecting on the industry’s past era of abundant funding, Webster notes that many teams received capital simply because they had delivered a hit, only to discover that running a studio is far tougher than anticipated.
He criticizes the lingering fascination with the “single creative visionary” myth, calling it “bullshit.” In his view, games are always the product of collaborative effort, not the singular genius of one individual. As for Fuse’s next steps, Webster admits the future is still being written. The launch of Galactic Racer is just the beginning, and while the studio has ideas for subsequent projects, he stresses that independent developers must remain flexible and adaptable in an ever‑changing market. "We’ll keep talking to people about opportunities, and we have a sense of where we want to go," he says, "but the reality for an indie studio today is that you have to be ready to pivot when needed."