Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay within the walls of Electronic Arts. He started at EA in 1990 and spent nearly twenty years working on the iconic Burnout and Need for Speed franchises after EA acquired Criterion in 2004.
Yet in early 2023 he, along with fellow Criterion alumni Steve Uphill, Pete Lake, Andrei Shires and Alan McDairmant, decided to leave that long‑standing tenure and launch an independent studio in the United Kingdom called Fuse Games. Three and a half 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*. In the intervening two decades, the racing genre has struggled to retain mainstream attention.
Amazon recently abandoned a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for its upcoming driving title *Clutch*, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis remarking that the market simply didn’t seem to need another racer. Meanwhile, Criterion, once a powerhouse of arcade‑style racing, has shifted its focus to 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. “We’re not the only ones who think that, and the response we get from our videos and articles suggests we’re not alone.” He points out that gaming genres tend to be cyclical.
After a period dominated by shooters, other genres inevitably resurface as player tastes evolve. “As more people play video games, even the tiniest niches find larger audiences,” Webster explained. According to Webster, modern gamers are hungry for fresh, compelling experiences they haven’t encountered before, and he believes *Galactic Racer* delivers exactly that. The team set out to capture the instant gratification of classic arcade racing while also asking, “What can we do when we’re no longer bound by tyres and tarmac?” The answer, he says, is tracks that climb the sides of active volcanoes and courses that feel more like roller‑coasters than traditional circuits.
Beyond the high‑octane thrills, *Galactic Racer* aims to upend long‑standing conventions of the racing genre. Most racing games have relied on a car‑collection model for the past two decades, a formula Webster wants to dismantle.
“Let’s rip that up and steal ideas from other genres,” he said. One of those ideas is the notion of meaningful consequences. In many modern racers, a rewind button erases mistakes, reducing the stakes of crashing. Fuse wants to re‑introduce risk: crashing too often forces the player back to the start, though some meta‑progression carries over, giving a sense of advancement despite the setback.
This risk‑reward loop is inspired by roguelike titles such as *Hades*, *Returnal* and *Slay the Spire*, which are built for infinite replayability. “Racing thrives on replayability, so marrying it with roguelike mechanics feels like a match made in heaven,” Webster noted. The consequence system is designed to make each crash feel weighty.
When a player is on their final allowed crash, they must weigh the risk of pushing forward versus the penalty of resetting. This approach represents a bold departure from the hand‑holding typical of many AAA releases, especially in a year crowded with heavyweight launches like *GTA 6* (scheduled for November 19).
*Galactic Racer* is slated for an October 6 release, giving it a comfortable window before the massive GTA debut while still landing after other major titles such as *Control: Resonance* and *Silent Hill: Townfall* (both released September 24). Webster acknowledges the competitive landscape but emphasizes a “healthy sense of confidence” tempered by realism. “I was always told good games will find a way,” he reflected, adding that the industry’s current wave of layoffs underscores his belief that great teams make great games, and great games find their audience. He also observes a broader industry trend: an aversion to risk.
“When studios shy away from risk, it creates opportunities for those willing to take calculated bets,” Webster said. Yet he admits that securing funding for an independent studio in 2023 has been challenging. After three decades at EA, he found himself stepping out of a bubble and learning to build a team based on shared values, disciplined planning, and constant adaptation.
“Engaged and motivated talent makes great things,” he asserted, noting that Fuse deliberately kept its core team small—around 75 people—to avoid the typical “grow‑shrink‑grow‑shrink” cycle that plagues many large studios. Instead of scaling the internal staff, Fuse leans heavily on external development partners.
The studio distinguishes between transactional outsourcing (pure asset creation) and true co‑development, where external studios become extensions of the Fuse team, joining daily stand‑ups, Slack channels, and even the codebase. The United Kingdom, with its mature game‑development ecosystem, proves especially conducive to this model.
In the past, external studios might have been reluctant collaborators, but today many companies hire flexible talent eager to work across diverse projects, keeping the workforce fresh and enthusiastic. Webster believes this hybrid model—small permanent core plus trusted external partners—offers a sustainable path to delivering AAA‑level scope, scale and visual fidelity on a reasonable budget. The rapid development timeline of *Galactic Racer* serves as proof: Fuse launched in January 2023, and within three and a half years they built a studio, assembled a team, and created a game on Unreal Engine 5—a technology none of them had previously mastered.
Another noteworthy aspect of Fuse’s journey is its embrace of young talent. While the studio includes veterans from Criterion, many of its developers are newcomers to the industry, and one producer has never worked on a game before. “The young talent we’ve got is smarter and more effective in many ways than I was at that age,” Webster said, highlighting the success they’ve seen in nurturing junior staff over more senior hires. He notes that seasoned developers often prefer working with peers who need little guidance, but that dynamic can stifle growth.
By focusing on mentorship and development, Fuse has created a culture that energizes both junior and senior team members. Looking ahead, Webster hopes to formalize an internship program, though he cautions that the studio is still pre‑revenue and must be realistic about the costs involved in talent development. He draws a parallel to Criterion’s successful intern pipelines and expresses optimism that Fuse can replicate that model once the financial footing solidifies. Reflecting on the industry’s past boom years, Webster recalls a time when successful games generated enough capital for their creators to spin off independent studios—only to discover that running a studio is far tougher than anticipated.
He criticizes the lingering myth of the “singular creative visionary,” calling it “fucking bullshit.” In his view, games are collaborative endeavors, and the focus should be on great teams rather than glorified individuals. As for Fuse’s future beyond *Galactic Racer*, Webster admits the roadmap is still forming. The launch is just the beginning, and the studio remains open to new opportunities, always emphasizing flexibility and adaptability as essential traits for independent developers in today’s market. The combination of a bold design philosophy, a lean‑core‑plus‑partner development model, and a commitment to fostering fresh talent positions Fuse Games to navigate the ever‑shifting landscape of the video‑game industry.