Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay within the walls of Electronic Arts. He entered the company back in 1990 and spent almost twenty years contributing to the iconic Burnout and Need for Speed franchises through Criterion, the 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. Fast‑forward a little over three years, and Fuse is on the brink of releasing 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 racing effort, 2002’s Racer Revenge, and it does so in a climate where racing games have generally slipped out of the spotlight. Amazon recently abandoned a publishing arrangement with Maverick Games for its upcoming driving title Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis remarking that the market didn’t seem to have room for another racer. Meanwhile, Criterion, once a powerhouse of arcade‑style racing, has pivoted toward the Battlefield franchise.
Despite these signals, Webster remains convinced there is still a hungry audience for a Star Wars‑themed racing experience. “We clearly see an audience for a Star Wars racing game,” he told GamesIndustry.biz. “We’re not the only ones who think that, and the reaction to our videos and articles suggests we’re not alone.” He argues that video‑game genres tend to be cyclical. After a period dominated by shooters, other types inevitably resurface.
“As more people play games, even the tiniest niches can find a larger following,” Webster added. According to Webster, modern gamers are craving "fun, interesting, compelling new experiences they haven’t seen before," and he believes Galactic Racer delivers exactly that. The team set out to capture the instant gratification of classic arcade racers while also asking, “What can we do once we’re no longer bound by tyres and tarmac?” The answer includes wildly imaginative tracks that climb the side of an active volcano and feel more like roller‑coasters than traditional circuits.
Beyond the high‑octane thrills, Galactic Racer aims to upend several long‑standing conventions of the racing genre. For two decades, most racers have been built around a car‑collection model, where players unlock and upgrade vehicles over time. Webster wants to tear that formula apart and borrow mechanics from other genres. One of the most striking innovations is the introduction of meaningful consequences for crashing.
In many contemporary racers, a rewind button erases mistakes, reducing risk to almost zero. Fuse instead re‑introduces risk: excessive crashes send the player back to the start of a run, though some meta‑progression carries over, giving a slightly stronger position on the next attempt.
This creates a tension that forces players to weigh risk versus reward, especially when they are on their final allowed crash. The design philosophy draws heavily from roguelike titles such as Hades, Returnal and Slay the Spire—games celebrated for infinite replayability. "Racing thrives on replayability," Webster notes, "so blending it with roguelike loops feels like a match made in heaven." Each run becomes a fresh puzzle, encouraging players to experiment with different routes, power‑ups and strategies, while the underlying Star Wars universe provides a familiar thematic backdrop.
Launching on October 6, Galactic Racer lands in a crowded autumn window that also includes heavyweight releases like Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall (both arriving September 24) and the highly anticipated GTA 6 slated for November 19. Webster acknowledges the competitive landscape but points out that crowded launch periods are nothing new. He recalls earlier industry chatter about “Murderer’s Row” in September and argues that a “healthy sense of confidence” coupled with a realistic outlook is essential.
“Good games will find a way,” he says, echoing a mantra that has guided him through multiple industry cycles. Webster also reflects on the current wave of layoffs across the sector. Having lived through a similar contraction fifteen years ago, he sees a pattern: great teams make great games, and great games attract audiences.
He warns that an industry-wide aversion to risk can stifle innovation, but he also sees opportunity for studios willing to take calculated bets. "If you’re not willing to risk, you limit yourself," he explains. Starting an independent studio in 2023 has not been without its hurdles.
Funding, in particular, proved elusive. "People said, ‘You’re brave doing an indie studio in 2023,’" Webster recalls. After thirty‑two years at EA, he found himself navigating a completely new environment. He leaned on principles he’d learned over his career: assemble a talented core team, refine a clear creative vision, and maintain disciplined planning—while accepting that plans are always imperfect and must be iterated upon.
Fuse Games operates with a relatively lean core of roughly 75 staff members, a deliberate choice to avoid the boom‑and‑bust staffing cycles that many AAA studios endure. Instead, the studio supplements its capabilities through external development partners.
This model ranges from transactional outsourcing for asset creation to full co‑development, where external studios sit in on daily stand‑ups, Slack channels and even share code repositories. Webster highlights the UK’s mature development ecosystem as a key advantage, noting that today’s partner studios are eager to collaborate across multiple projects, keeping talent fresh and motivated. Webster believes this hybrid approach—small permanent team plus trusted external collaborators—offers a sustainable path to producing AAA‑scale experiences on a manageable budget. The rapid development timeline of Galactic Racer illustrates this point: Fuse was founded in January 2023, and within three and a half years the team built a studio, assembled a team, learned Unreal Engine 5 from scratch, and delivered a full‑featured game.
"It feels like an achievement," Webster says, "and we did it in a healthy, sustainable way." Another notable aspect of Fuse’s journey is the infusion of young talent. While the studio’s leadership includes several Criterion veterans, many of the developers are newcomers to the industry, and one producer had never worked on a game before joining. "The young talent we’ve brought on is incredibly smart and effective—often more so than I was at that age," Webster remarks. He observes that seasoned developers sometimes prefer senior colleagues who need minimal guidance, but fostering and mentoring younger staff creates a more dynamic and motivated environment.
The studio is even considering an intern program, though it remains pre‑revenue and cautious about the costs associated with talent development. Looking back to the mid‑2010s, when the industry was flush with capital, Webster recalls a trend where successful game leads were given funding to launch their own studios, only to discover the reality was far tougher than anticipated. He criticizes the lingering myth of the "single creative visionary" as "bullshit," emphasizing that games are fundamentally collaborative endeavors. As for Fuse’s future beyond Galactic Racer, Webster admits plans are still fluid.
The launch is just the first chapter, and the studio remains open to exploring new opportunities and directions. "Independent developers need to stay flexible and adaptable," he says, underscoring a pragmatic mindset that has guided Fuse from its inception to its imminent debut.