Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay within Electronic Arts forever. He first joined EA back in 1990 and, after nearly twenty years, became a key figure at Criterion, the studio behind Burnout and Need for Speed, which EA acquired in 2004.
In early 2023, however, Webster decided to leave that long‑standing path. Together with former Criterion colleagues Steve Uphill, Pete Lake, Andrei Shires and Alan McDairmant, he co‑founded the independent UK studio Fuse Games.
Just three and a half years later the fledgling studio 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‑themed racing game, 2002’s Racer Revenge, and it does so at a time when the racing genre has generally lost some of its mainstream shine.
Amazon recently cancelled a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for a driving title called Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis remarking that the market simply didn’t have a clear fit for the project. Meanwhile, Criterion, once a powerhouse of arcade‑style racers, has shifted its focus to the Battlefield franchise. Despite these signals, Webster remains convinced that a demand still exists.
“We clearly think there’s an audience for a Star Wars racing game,” he told GamesIndustry.biz. “Our community, the people who watch our videos and read our articles, suggest we’re not alone in that belief.” He points out that video‑game genres are inherently cyclical.
After a period where shooters seemed to dominate every conversation, other genres inevitably rise again as the player base expands. “As more and more people play video games, even the tiniest of niches find a bigger audience,” Webster explained.
Players, he argues, are constantly on the lookout for fresh, compelling experiences they haven’t encountered before – and he believes Galactic Racer delivers exactly that. The design philosophy behind the game embraces the instant gratification of classic arcade racers while also asking, “What can we do once we’re no longer bound by the physics of tyres and tarmac?” The answer, according to Webster, is to let imagination run wild.
One track, for example, climbs the side of an active volcano, turning a race into a roller‑coaster‑like thrill ride. Yet the ambition goes deeper than spectacle. Traditional racing games have relied on a static car‑collection model for the past two decades.
Webster wants to overturn that convention, borrowing mechanics from other genres to create something novel. Consequential decision‑making sits at the heart of Galactic Racer’s design. In many modern racers, the presence of a rewind button erodes the impact of mistakes.
Fuse Games decided to bring consequences back, making each crash matter. The system draws inspiration from roguelike titles such as Hades, Returnal and Slay the Spire – games built around infinite replayability and persistent progression. In Galactic Racer, crashing too often forces the player back to the start of a run, but they retain a slice of meta‑progress that puts them in a stronger position the next time around.
This risk‑reward loop forces players to weigh their actions carefully, especially when they’re on their final allowed crash and the stakes feel truly high. Webster acknowledges that this approach is a bold departure from the hand‑holding that has become commonplace in AAA titles, but he also sees it as a necessary differentiation in a crowded market. The game’s launch date, October 6, sits comfortably before the highly anticipated GTA 6 release on November 19, yet it follows other major releases like Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall, both slated for September 24.
“September always looks busy,” he notes, recalling past industry chatter about a “murderers’ row” of releases. “October has been packed before, too.
We just have a healthy confidence tempered by a realistic view of how things might turn out.” When asked about the wave of layoffs sweeping the industry, Webster reflects on his long tenure. He remembers a similar contraction about fifteen years ago and emphasizes a timeless truth: great teams make great games, and great games find an audience.
He warns that the current climate is marked by a pronounced aversion to risk, which paradoxically creates openings for developers willing to take calculated bets. “If you’re not willing to push the envelope, you’ll miss the opportunities that arise when others play it safe,” he says. Starting a new studio in 2023 has not been without its challenges.
Securing funding proved difficult; many observers questioned the wisdom of launching an independent studio at a time when big publishers were tightening their belts. Webster admits the learning curve was steep after spending three decades inside EA’s protective bubble.
He distilled his experience into a simple formula: assemble a talented, motivated team; refine a clear creative vision; craft a disciplined plan (while accepting that plans are always imperfect); and continuously review, adapt, and stay true to core values. Engaged talent, he believes, is the engine that drives exceptional outcomes. Fuse Games remains relatively small for a title with AAA ambitions, numbering around 75 core staff. This size is intentional.
Rather than expanding and contracting the internal team in response to production peaks—a pattern Webster describes as “grow, shrink, grow, shrink”—the studio leans heavily on external development partners. These collaborators range from transactional outsourcing relationships, which handle asset creation, to deep co‑development arrangements where external studios attend daily stand‑ups, share Slack channels, and contribute directly to the codebase. Webster highlights the UK’s mature development ecosystem as a fertile ground for such partnerships, noting that today’s studios are eager to work across multiple projects and teams, keeping their talent fresh and motivated. The result of this hybrid model, Webster argues, is a sustainable pathway to delivering AAA‑scale scope, scale and visual fidelity without the ballooning budgets that traditionally accompany such projects.
The rapid timeline of Galactic Racer—conceived in January 2023 and ready for launch just three and a half years later—demonstrates the viability of this approach. The team built the game on Unreal Engine 5, a technology none of them had previously mastered, yet they delivered a polished product on schedule and within a sustainable budget. A notable aspect of Fuse’s culture is its blend of veteran expertise and youthful energy.
While several Criterion alumni anchor the studio, 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 says. He observes that seasoned developers sometimes prefer senior colleagues who can work independently, but this mindset can stifle mentorship and growth.
By deliberately nurturing younger staff, Fuse has found a dynamic that fuels innovation and morale. Looking ahead, Webster hopes to formalize an internship pipeline to further cultivate emerging talent, though he acknowledges that the studio is still pre‑revenue. He points to Criterion’s historic success with intern programs as a model worth emulating, while also warning that developing talent incurs real costs that must be accounted for.
Reflecting on the industry’s past fixation on the “lone creative visionary,” Webster dismisses the notion as nonsense. “Games are never the product of a single genius; they’re collaborations of many individuals,” he asserts. The era when successful games automatically granted their leads the capital to start their own studios has faded, and he believes funding should be directed toward strong, cohesive teams rather than celebrity creators. As for Fuse Games’ next steps, the future remains fluid.
The launch of Galactic Racer is just the beginning, and the studio is open to exploring new opportunities, always keeping flexibility and adaptability at the forefront of its strategy. In Webster’s words, “Good games will find a way, and we’re hoping ours does too.”