Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay within the walls of Electronic Arts. He started at the company in 1990 and spent almost twenty years contributing to the Burnout and Need for Speed franchises while they were under the Criterion banner, a 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 studio in the United Kingdom called Fuse Games. Three and a half years later the fledgling studio is poised to ship its debut title, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, which will be published by the newly autonomous label 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 traditional racing games have struggled to capture mainstream attention. Amazon recently walked away from a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for its upcoming driving title Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis explaining that the project didn’t fit the current market landscape. Criterion itself has largely moved away from pure racing, redirecting its resources toward the Battlefield franchise. Despite these signals, Webster remains convinced that a demand exists for a Star Wars racing experience.
“We clearly see an audience for a Star Wars racing game,” he told GamesIndustry.biz. “Our community feedback, video views and article reads suggest we’re not the only ones who think so.” He points out that video‑game genres tend to be cyclical. After a period dominated by shooters, other categories inevitably re‑emerge. “As more people play video games, even the tiniest niches can find a larger audience,” Webster said.
He believes players are hungry for “fun, interesting, compelling new experiences they haven’t seen before,” and he feels Galactic Racer delivers exactly that fresh angle. Fuse’s design philosophy embraces the instant‑gratification feel of classic arcade racers while also asking, “What can we do once we’re no longer bound 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 gravity‑defying set‑pieces that would be impossible in a realistic simulation. Yet the game also seeks to subvert long‑standing racing conventions.
Most racing titles have relied on a static car‑collection model for the past two decades; Galactic Racer throws that out the window and borrows mechanics from other genres. One of the most striking innovations is the emphasis on consequential decision‑making, particularly around crashes. In many modern racers a “rewind” button erases the penalty for a mistake, but Webster wants crashes to matter. “When you crash too often you’re sent back to the start, but you retain some meta‑progression that makes you a bit stronger,” he explained.
“That consequence forces you to weigh risk versus reward, especially when you’re on your last allowed crash.” The game’s structure draws inspiration from roguelike titles such as Hades, Returnal and Slay the Spire—games built around infinite replayability. “Racing already thrives on replay value, so combining it with roguelike loops feels like a match made in heaven,” Webster said.
Each run offers new track variations, power‑ups and strategic choices, ensuring that no two races feel identical. Launching on October 6, Galactic Racer lands a month before the highly anticipated GTA 6 release on November 19, but it also follows other major releases like Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall (both September 24). Webster acknowledges the crowded calendar but reminds readers that the industry has always endured busy windows. “People used to call October ‘murderer’s row,’ and it was packed then just as it is now,” he noted, adding that Fuse approaches the market with “a healthy confidence tempered by a realistic view of how things might turn out.” When asked about the wave of layoffs sweeping the industry, Webster reflected on his long tenure.
He recalled a similar contraction fifteen years ago and observed that great teams create great games, which in turn find audiences. “There’s a pervasive aversion to risk right now,” he said. “That creates opportunities for those willing to take calculated bets. If you shy away from risk, you limit yourself and the market.” Funding an independent studio in 2023 has not been easy.
“People told me I was brave to start a studio now,” Webster recalled. After thirty‑two years at EA, he stepped out of the corporate bubble and leaned on principles he’d learned: build a solid team, refine a clear creative vision, and maintain disciplined planning—while accepting that plans will inevitably change.
He emphasized that engaged, motivated talent is the engine of great games, and that it’s the studio’s responsibility to nurture that enthusiasm. Fuse operates with a relatively lean core of about 75 developers, a deliberate choice to avoid the industry’s typical “grow‑shrink‑grow‑shrink” cycle. Instead, the studio supplements its capabilities through external development partners. These partnerships range from transactional outsourcing for asset creation to deep co‑development arrangements where external studios attend Fuse’s stand‑ups, Slack channels and even share codebases.
Webster highlighted the UK’s mature development ecosystem as especially conducive to such collaboration, noting that today’s studios are eager to work on diverse projects rather than clinging to a single proprietary title. Webster believes this hybrid model—small permanent core plus trusted external collaborators—could become the new blueprint for sustainable AAA production.
“You can deliver AAA‑scale scope, fidelity and polish on a more sustainable budget this way,” he asserted, citing the rapid three‑and‑a‑half‑year development cycle of Galactic Racer as proof of concept. The team built the game in Unreal Engine 5 despite none of them having prior UE5 experience, a testament to their adaptability and the effectiveness of their partnership network. Another noteworthy aspect of Fuse’s approach is its reliance on younger talent. While the studio includes several Criterion veterans, many of its developers are fresh faces, and one producer had never worked in games before joining the project.
“Our young talent is often smarter and more effective than I was at that age,” Webster said, adding that the studio has seen greater success with emerging developers than with some senior hires. He observed that seasoned developers sometimes prefer working alongside peers who need little guidance, which can stifle mentorship opportunities. By focusing on nurturing junior staff, Fuse hopes to foster a more dynamic, innovative environment. Looking ahead, Webster hopes to formalize an internship program to further cultivate new talent, though he admits the studio is still pre‑revenue and must be cautious about the costs involved.
He recalled a period five or six years ago when abundant funding allowed successful developers to spin off their own studios, only to discover the challenges of independent operation. “Money should go to great teams, not just to superstar creators,” he argued, dismissing the industry’s lingering obsession with the lone visionary as “bullshit.” In reality, he insists, games are collaborative creations. As for Fuse’s next steps beyond Galactic Racer, Webster remains deliberately vague.
The studio views the launch as just the beginning and is open to exploring new opportunities, but stresses that flexibility and adaptability are essential for independent developers in today’s market. He summed up his outlook with a simple, hopeful mantra: “Good games will find a way, so we’re hoping they do.”