Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay inside Electronic Arts. He arrived at the publisher in 1990 and spent almost twenty years working on the Burnout and Need for Speed franchises while they were under the Criterion umbrella, a studio EA acquired in 2004.
Yet in early 2023 Webster, together with former Criterion colleagues Steve Uphill, Pete Lake, Andrei Shires and Alan McDairmant, decided to leave the corporate behemoth and launch their own independent UK studio, Fuse Games. Fast‑forward three and a half years, and the fledgling team is poised to ship 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 moment when traditional racing games have struggled to capture mainstream attention.
Amazon recently walked away from a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for its upcoming driving title Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis noting that the market simply didn’t seem to need another racer. Meanwhile, Criterion itself has largely shifted away from pure‑racing projects, devoting its resources to the Battlefield franchise.
Despite these signals, Webster remains convinced there is a viable audience for a Star Wars‑themed racing experience. “We clearly think there’s a market for a Star Wars racing game,” he told GamesIndustry.biz. “We’re not the only ones who feel that way – the comments we get on our videos and articles suggest we’re not alone.” He points out that video‑game genres tend to be cyclical. After a period dominated by shooters, other categories inevitably rise again.
“As more people play games, even the tiniest niches find a bigger audience,” he added. Webster believes players are hungry for fresh, compelling experiences that they haven’t seen before, and he feels Galactic Racer delivers exactly that. The studio 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 includes wildly imaginative tracks – one even climbs the side of an active volcano, turning a race into a roller‑coaster‑like thrill ride.
Beyond the arcade spectacle, Galactic Racer seeks to upend long‑standing genre conventions. Most racing games have relied on a car‑collection model for the past two decades; Webster wants to tear that formula apart and borrow mechanics from other genres. The game introduces meaningful consequences for player actions, especially crashes. In many modern racers, a rewind button erases any penalty, but Fuse wants crashes to matter.
“If you crash too often you’re sent back to the start, but you retain some meta‑progression that puts you in a stronger position,” he explained. This risk‑reward loop forces players to weigh each maneuver carefully, especially when they’re on their last allowed crash.
The design philosophy draws heavily from roguelike titles such as Hades, Returnal and Slay the Spire – games built for infinite replayability. Racing, by nature, thrives on repeated attempts, so merging roguelike persistence with high‑speed competition creates a “match made in heaven,” according to Webster. Each run feels fresh, and the meta‑progression system rewards perseverance, encouraging players to keep coming back for more. Launching the game on October 6 places it between a crowded September slate (Control Resonant, Silent Hill: Townfall) and the highly anticipated GTA 6 release slated for November 19.
Webster acknowledges the competition but notes that the industry has always faced busy windows. “People used to call September ‘murderer’s row,’ and October was always packed,” he said.
Fuse approaches the market with a “healthy sense of confidence” tempered by a realistic appraisal of how the title might perform. When asked about the wave of layoffs sweeping the industry, Webster reflected on his long tenure. He recalled a similar downsizing period fifteen years ago and observed that great teams produce great games, which in turn find an audience. He warned that the current risk‑averse climate can stifle innovation, but also creates space for studios willing to take calculated bets.
“If you’re not willing to risk, you limit opportunity,” he said. Funding an independent studio in 2023 has not been easy. “People told me I was brave for starting an indie studio now,” Webster recalled. After three decades at EA, he found himself stepping out of a corporate bubble and relying on core principles: assemble a talented team, refine a clear creative vision, and maintain disciplined planning while staying adaptable.
He emphasized that a motivated, engaged team is the engine behind any successful project. Fuse’s roster for Galactic Racer numbers around 75 developers – a deliberately small core compared to typical AAA studios. Rather than inflating and deflating staff, Fuse leverages external partners to fill gaps, using a blend of transactional outsourcing for asset creation and deeper co‑development relationships where external studios sit in on stand‑ups, Slack channels and even share codebases.
Webster highlighted the UK’s mature game‑development ecosystem as a fertile ground for such collaborations, noting that today many companies are eager to work across multiple projects, keeping talent fresh and enthusiastic. Webster believes this hybrid model – a lean permanent team augmented by trusted partners – could become the sustainable blueprint for future AAA‑scale games. “You can achieve the scope, scale and visual fidelity of a AAA title on a more sustainable budget this way,” he asserted, adding that the rapid development timeline of Galactic Racer proves the approach works.
Starting Fuse in January 2023 and delivering a polished UE5‑based game in just over three years feels, to him, like a significant accomplishment. A noteworthy aspect of Fuse’s culture is its embrace of younger talent. Alongside the veteran Criterion alumni, many of the developers on Galactic Racer are fresh faces, some without prior game‑industry experience.
One producer, for instance, had never worked in games before joining the project. Webster praised this influx of new perspectives, saying the younger team members often out‑perform older colleagues in creativity and efficiency.
He observed that seasoned developers sometimes prefer senior co‑workers who need little guidance, but that nurturing junior staff can be equally motivating for everyone involved. Looking ahead, Webster hopes to formalize an internship pipeline to cultivate emerging talent, though he cautions that Fuse is still pre‑revenue and must balance ambition with financial realities. He draws inspiration from Criterion’s successful intern programs and acknowledges that developing talent requires upfront investment and clear expectations.
Reflecting on the industry’s earlier boom years, Webster recalled how many successful games spawned spin‑off studios funded by eager investors. In hindsight, he believes that money would have been better allocated to strong teams rather than to individual “superstar” creators. He dismisses the romantic notion of a single visionary steering a game, calling it “bullshit.” Instead, he stresses that games are collaborative endeavors built by many contributors. As for Fuse’s next steps, Webster admits the future is still being charted.
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, emphasizing that the journey has only just started.