Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay within the walls of Electronic Arts. He arrived at the publisher in 1990 and spent nearly twenty years developing titles for the Criterion studio, the team behind the Burnout and Need for Speed franchises that EA acquired in 2004.
In early 2023, however, Webster and several fellow Criterion alumni—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 company is preparing to launch 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 racing effort, 2002’s Racer Revenge, and it does so at a time when the racing genre has largely fallen out of mainstream favor. Amazon recently walked away from a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for its upcoming driving game Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis explaining that the title didn’t fit the current market.
Meanwhile, Criterion itself has largely moved away from pure racing projects, redirecting its talent toward the Battlefield series. Despite these signals, Webster remains convinced there is still a hungry audience for a Star Wars‑themed racer. “We clearly believe there’s an audience for a Star Wars racing game,” he told GamesIndustry.biz. “We’re not the only ones thinking that, and the response we get from people watching our videos or reading our articles suggests we’re not alone.” He points out that genres tend to be cyclical.
After a period dominated by shooters, other types of games inevitably re‑emerge as players look for fresh, compelling experiences they haven’t seen before. “As more people play video games, even the tiniest niches can find a larger audience,” Webster added.
Webster says the team’s ambition is to deliver something both fun and novel. Fuse wanted to capture the instant gratification of an arcade‑style racer while also exploring what’s possible when you’re not limited by realistic tyres and tarmac. “We have tracks that climb the side of an active volcano,” he explains. “Sometimes it feels like a roller‑coaster.” Beyond the high‑octane thrills, Galactic Racer deliberately subverts several long‑standing conventions of the genre.
Traditionally, racing games revolve around collecting cars—a formula that has barely changed in the past two decades. Webster proposes to “rip that up” and borrow mechanics from other genres.
One such experiment is the introduction of meaningful consequences for crashing. In many modern racers, a rewind button nullifies any penalty, but Fuse wants crashes to matter.
“If you crash too many times you’re sent back to the start, but you retain some meta‑progression that puts you in a stronger position,” he says. “When you’re on your last allowed crash, you feel the risk and have to decide whether to push forward or play it safe.” The design philosophy draws heavily 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,” Webster notes. Each run offers a fresh configuration of obstacles, power‑ups and shortcuts, encouraging players to experiment and improve over multiple attempts.
Launching the game on October 6 places it between several heavyweight releases. Grand Theft Auto VI is slated for November 19, while September 24 saw the launches of Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall.
Some observers worry that September is already crowded, but Webster recalls earlier eras when October was considered the busiest month of the year. He acknowledges the competition but says Fuse approaches it with a “healthy confidence tempered by a realistic view of how things may turn out.” Webster’s optimism is rooted in a long‑term perspective on the industry. He reflects on the wave of layoffs that has swept through the sector, noting that great teams make great games, and great games find audiences.
“What we’re seeing now is a lot of aversion to risk,” he observes. “That creates opportunities for people willing to take calculated bets and push boundaries. If you’re overly cautious, you limit those opportunities.” Funding an independent studio in 2023 has been anything but easy. “People told me, ‘You’re brave starting an indie studio now,’” he recalls.
After 32 years at EA, Webster found himself in a new reality where the usual corporate safety nets no longer existed. He leaned on principles he’d learned over his career: build a strong team, refine a clear creative vision, and maintain disciplined planning—while accepting that plans are always imperfect and must be iterated upon.
Fuse Games is deliberately kept small, with roughly 75 core staff members—a size more typical of a mid‑tier studio than a traditional AAA developer. Rather than expanding and contracting staff in response to project phases, Fuse relies heavily on external partners to fill skill gaps. “We’re not doing the grow‑shrink‑grow‑shrink cycle,” Webster explains. “Our model is a permanent, lean core team complemented by trusted external studios that share our values.
They can act as pure asset‑creation outsourcers or as full co‑development partners that sit in our stand‑ups, Slack channels and codebase.” The United Kingdom, with its mature game‑development ecosystem, proves especially fertile for this co‑development approach. In the past, studios were often reluctant to collaborate, preferring to protect their own IP.
Today, however, many companies actively seek out partnerships, keeping their talent motivated by working on diverse projects across multiple teams. 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 product built on Unreal Engine 5—demonstrates the viability of the approach. Another noteworthy aspect of Fuse’s strategy is its heavy investment in young talent. While the studio includes several Criterion veterans, many of its developers are newcomers to the industry; one producer, for instance, had never worked on a game before joining Fuse.
“Our young staff are often smarter and more effective than I was at that age,” Webster says. “We’ve had greater success with them than with some senior hires from elsewhere.” He argues that seasoned developers sometimes prefer to work with peers who require minimal mentorship, which can stifle growth.
By nurturing junior staff, Fuse not only builds a more dynamic team but also cultivates a pipeline of future leaders. Looking ahead, Webster hopes to formalize an internship program, drawing inspiration from Criterion’s successful intern initiatives.
“We’re still pre‑revenue, so we have to be realistic about the costs of developing talent,” he cautions, but he remains confident that investing in the next generation will pay dividends. Reflecting on the industry’s previous boom years, Webster notes that many developers received funding based on the success of a single hit, only to discover that running a studio is far more challenging than anticipated. He criticizes the lingering myth of the “singular creative visionary” as “fucking bullshit.” In reality, games are collaborative endeavors involving countless contributors.
As for Fuse’s future beyond Galactic Racer, Webster admits the path is still being charted. The launch is just the beginning, and the studio remains open to exploring new opportunities while staying flexible and adaptable—qualities he believes are essential for independent developers in today’s ever‑changing market.