Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay within the walls of Electronic Arts. He started at EA 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 UK studio called Fuse Games. Just over three years later the fledgling studio 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‑themed racing game, 2002’s Racer Revenge, and it does so at a time when racing games have generally slipped out of the mainstream spotlight. Amazon recently walked away from 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 have room for another racer. Criterion, the very studio Webster helped build, has shifted its focus from pure racing to the Battlefield franchise. Despite these signals, Webster remains convinced there is still a hungry audience for a Star Wars‑styled 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 people watching our videos or reading our articles suggests we’re not alone.” He points out that genres tend to be cyclical.
While shooters have dominated the past decade, other types of games inevitably resurface as player tastes evolve. “The more people play video games, the larger the audience becomes for even the tiniest niche,” Webster added. According to Webster, 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 feel of classic arcade racers while also asking, “What could we do if we weren’t limited by tyres and tarmac?” The answer, he says, is tracks that climb the side of an active volcano, courses that feel like roller‑coasters, and other over‑the‑top environments that would be impossible in a realistic simulation. Beyond the high‑octane thrills, Galactic Racer is designed to upend long‑standing conventions of the racing genre. Traditionally, racers have relied on a car‑collection model that has changed little for two decades. Webster wants to tear that formula apart and borrow mechanics from other genres.
One of the most radical changes is the introduction of meaningful consequences for crashing. In many modern racers, a rewind button erases the penalty of a mistake, but Fuse wants crashes to matter. When a player crashes too often, they are sent back to the start of the run, though they retain a small amount of meta‑progress that puts them in a slightly stronger position the next attempt. This risk‑reward loop forces players to weigh every maneuver, especially when they are on their last allowable crash.
The game’s structure also draws inspiration 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 principles feels like a match made in heaven,” Webster explained.
Each run is a fresh puzzle, with procedurally varied tracks, power‑ups and upgrades that keep the experience feeling new even after dozens of attempts. Launching on October 6, Galactic Racer lands a few weeks before the highly anticipated GTA 6, which is slated for November 19, but after other major releases like Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall on September 24. Webster acknowledges that the release calendar is crowded, noting that industry veterans have long referred to September as “Murderer’s Row.” Nevertheless, he believes that a well‑crafted, distinctive game can carve out its own space. “We have a healthy confidence tempered by a realistic view of how things might turn out,” he said.
“Good games find a way.” Webster reflects on the wave of layoffs that has swept the industry, recalling a similar downturn about fifteen years ago. He sees a pattern: great teams create great games, and great games attract audiences. Yet today, many publishers shy away from risk, which he argues actually creates opportunities for studios willing to take calculated bets. “If you’re not willing to risk, you limit yourself,” he warned.
Funding an independent studio in 2023 has not been easy. “People told me it was brave to start a studio now,” Webster recalled. After thirty‑two years at EA, he found himself stepping out of a bubble into a world where securing capital is a constant challenge.
He emphasizes a set of principles that have guided Fuse: assemble a talented, motivated team; hone a clear creative vision; maintain disciplined planning while accepting that plans will evolve; and stay true to core values. By adhering to these tenets, Fuse aims to keep its team engaged and produce something remarkable. Fuse’s core team is relatively small—about 75 people—for a game of AAA ambition.
This size is intentional; the studio wants to avoid the industry’s typical “grow‑shrink‑grow‑shrink” cycle. Instead, Fuse relies heavily on external partners to fill gaps, treating outsourcing as a transactional asset pipeline and co‑development as an extension of the internal team. External studios attend Fuse’s stand‑ups, share Slack channels, and contribute directly to the codebase, creating a seamless collaborative environment.
The United Kingdom, according to Webster, is an ideal hub for this model because of its mature game‑development ecosystem. In the past, external studios were reluctant to help unless they could also push their own projects, but today many companies hire developers eager to work across multiple teams, keeping talent fresh and motivated.
This shift, he believes, enables a sustainable AAA‑scale production on a modest 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 this approach.
“We started Fuse in January 2023, and now we have a studio, a team, and a game built on an engine none of us previously knew,” Webster said proudly. “It feels like an achievement, and we did it in a healthy, sustainable way.” Fuse also benefits from a blend of veteran expertise and fresh perspectives.
While several Criterion veterans anchor the project, many younger developers have been brought on board, including a producer who had never worked in games before. “The young talent we’ve attracted is incredibly smart and effective—often more so than I was at their age,” Webster remarked. He notes that seasoned developers sometimes prefer senior colleagues who need little guidance, but nurturing younger staff can be equally rewarding and can drive the whole team forward. Looking ahead, Webster hopes to formalize an internship program to cultivate more emerging talent, though he admits the studio is still pre‑revenue.
He cites Criterion’s successful intern initiatives as a model and stresses that developing talent comes with costs that must be acknowledged. When reflecting on the era a few years ago when the industry was flush with cash, Webster observes that many successful teams received funding to spin off their own studios, only to discover that building a sustainable operation is far tougher than it appears.
He criticizes the industry’s lingering fixation on the “single creative visionary” myth, calling it “bullshit.” In reality, games are collaborative endeavors involving many contributors. As for Fuse’s future, the studio remains flexible. The launch of Galactic Racer is just the first step; the team is already contemplating new opportunities and directions, but as an independent developer they must stay adaptable to market shifts.
Webster concludes with a pragmatic optimism: “We’ve built something we’re proud of, we’ve proven a new development model works, and we’ll keep learning and evolving as the industry changes.”