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 legendary Burnout and Need for Speed franchises through Criterion, the studio EA acquired in 2004. In early 2023, however, Webster and several former Criterion colleagues—Steve Uphill, Pete Lake, Andrei Shires and Alan McDairmant—decided to strike out on their own, founding the independent UK studio Fuse Games. Just over three years later, the fledgling studio is poised to release 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 traditional racing games have struggled to capture mainstream attention. Amazon recently abandoned a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for its upcoming driving title Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis noting that the project didn’t fit the current market landscape. Meanwhile, Criterion itself has pivoted away from racing, devoting its resources to the Battlefield franchise. Despite these signals, Webster remains confident that a demand exists.
“We clearly see an audience for a Star Wars racing game,” he told GamesIndustry.biz. “Our community feedback—videos, articles, forum chatter—suggests we’re not alone in that belief.” He argues that video‑game genres are inherently cyclical. “Shooters dominated for a while, but they’re not the only genre that can thrive,” Webster said.
“As more people play games, even the tiniest niches can grow into sizable markets.” For him, players are hungry for "fun, interesting, compelling new experiences they haven’t seen before," and he believes Galactic Racer delivers exactly that. Fuse’s design philosophy embraces the instant‑gratification of classic arcade racers while also asking, “What could we do if we weren’t limited by tyres and tarmac?” The answer is a series of wildly imaginative tracks—one even climbs the side of an active volcano, turning each race into a roller‑coaster‑like spectacle. But the studio isn’t content with pure arcade thrills; it wants to upend long‑standing genre conventions.
Traditional racing games have relied on a static car‑collection model for roughly two decades. Webster wants to tear that model apart and borrow mechanics from other genres.
One of the most striking innovations is the emphasis on meaningful consequences. In many modern racers, a rewind button nullifies mistakes, eroding any sense of risk. Galactic Racer reintroduces stakes: crashing repeatedly sends you back to the start, though you retain a sliver of meta‑progression that makes you slightly stronger on subsequent attempts.
"When you’re on your last crash and the system is critical, you actually feel the tension and have to weigh the risk," Webster explained. The game’s structure draws inspiration from roguelikes such as Hades, Returnal, and Slay the Spire—titles built around infinite replayability. "Racing thrives on replay value, so marrying it with roguelike loops feels like a match made in heaven," Webster noted. This design choice also aligns with a broader industry shift away from the overly‑hand‑holding experiences typical of many AAA releases.
Timing the launch is another strategic decision. Galactic Racer is slated for October 6, comfortably ahead of Rockstar’s much‑anticipated GTA 6 (set for November 19) but close enough to ride the wave of other high‑profile releases like Control Resonant and Silent Hill: Townfall, both dropping on September 24.
Webster acknowledges the crowded calendar but points out that the industry has weathered busier pre‑Christmas schedules before. "People used to call September ‘murderers’ row’ and then October would be packed as well. We’re confident, but we keep a realistic view of how things might unfold," he said. When asked about the wave of layoffs sweeping the sector, Webster reflected on his long tenure.
He recalled a similar bout of cuts fifteen years ago and stressed a timeless truth: great teams make great games, and great games find their audiences. He warned that the current climate’s risk‑averse attitude can stifle innovation, yet he sees opportunity for studios willing to take calculated bets.
Funding an independent studio in 2023 has not been easy. "People told me I was brave to start a studio now," Webster recalled. After 32 years at EA, he stepped into unfamiliar territory, relying on core principles he’d learned: assemble a talented team, crystalise a creative vision, craft a disciplined plan (while accepting it will never be perfect), and continuously adapt.
He believes a small, tightly knit core—about 75 people for Galactic Racer—combined with strategic external partnerships is a sustainable model for AAA‑scale development. Rather than the traditional grow‑shrink‑grow cycle, Fuse outsources transactional asset work and engages in co‑development where external studios become extensions of the internal team, sharing stand‑ups, Slack channels, and codebases. The UK, with its mature development ecosystem, proves especially fertile for this collaborative approach. In the past, external studios often helped out reluctantly, focused on their own projects.
Today, many firms hire developers eager to work across diverse teams, keeping the talent pool fresh and motivated. Webster is also proud of the youthful energy fueling Fuse. Several younger developers, including a producer with no prior game‑industry experience, have joined the project.
"Our young talent is often smarter and more effective than we were at their age," he said, noting that nurturing junior staff has yielded greater success than relying solely on senior hires. He envisions an intern program in the future, though he cautions that the studio is still pre‑revenue and must balance ambition with financial reality.
Looking back to a period five or six years ago when the industry was flush with capital, Webster observed that many well‑funded teams launched studios only to discover the challenges of independence. He criticized the industry’s lingering fixation on the myth of a singular creative visionary, calling it "bullshit" and emphasizing that games are fundamentally collaborative endeavors. As for Fuse’s next steps, Webster admits the future is still being written.
The launch of Galactic Racer is just the beginning, and the studio remains open to new opportunities and ideas. "Independent developers need to stay flexible and adaptable," he concluded.
"We have a clear sense of where we want to go, but we’ll let the market and our own growth dictate the exact path forward."