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 contributing to the Burnout and Need for Speed series through Criterion, the 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 strike out on their own and launch the independent UK studio Fuse Games.
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 racing entry, 2002’s Racer Revenge, and it does so at a moment when the racing genre has generally slipped out of the mainstream spotlight.
Amazon recently walked away from a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for a forthcoming driving game called Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis commenting that the market simply didn’t seem to need another racer. Meanwhile, Criterion itself has pivoted away from pure racing projects to focus on the Battlefield franchise. Despite these signals, Webster remains convinced there is still a hungry audience for a Star Wars‑themed racing experience. “We clearly believe there’s a market for a Star Wars racing game,” he told GamesIndustry.biz.
“Our community, the people who watch our videos and read our posts, tells us we’re not alone in that belief.” He points out that genres tend to be cyclical. After a period dominated by shooters, other types of games inevitably resurface. As more and more people take up video games, even the tiniest niche can blossom into a sizable audience.
Players, he argues, are constantly seeking “fun, interesting, compelling new experiences they haven’t seen before,” and he feels Galactic Racer delivers exactly that fresh angle. Fuse’s design philosophy for the game embraces the instant‑gratification feel of classic arcade racers while also asking, “What can we do when we’re not limited by real‑world tyres and tarmac?” The answer, according to Webster, is to imagine tracks that climb the sides of active volcanoes, zip through gravity‑defying loops, and essentially become roller‑coasters in their own right. Yet the ambition goes beyond high‑octane thrills. Webster wants to upend long‑standing conventions of the racing genre, especially the entrenched model of car collection that has persisted for two decades.
“Let’s rip that up and steal ideas from other genres,” he says. One of those borrowed concepts is the notion of meaningful consequence, a staple of roguelike games such as Hades, Returnal and Slay the Spire. In many modern racers, the presence of a rewind button eliminates real risk; a crash is simply undone. Galactic Racer, however, re‑introduces stakes: crashing too often sends you back to the start of the run, though you retain a sliver of meta‑progression that makes subsequent attempts slightly stronger.
This creates a tension between risk and reward that Webster believes will keep players engaged over countless playthroughs—a perfect marriage of roguelike replayability and racing’s inherent desire for mastery. Launching the game on October 6 places it a month before the highly anticipated GTA 6 release on November 19, but after other major titles like Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall, which dropped on September 24.
Webster acknowledges the crowded calendar but notes that the industry has weathered even busier pre‑Christmas windows in the past. “People used to call September ‘murderer’s row,’ yet October was always packed,” he reflects, emphasizing that confidence must be balanced with a realistic outlook. The conversation inevitably turns to the broader industry climate, especially the wave of layoffs that has swept through major studios. Webster, a veteran of two decades, recalls a similar downsizing period fifteen years ago.
He believes great teams produce great games, and great games find their audiences, but notes that today many companies shy away from risk. “That aversion creates opportunities for those willing to take calculated bets,” he says, adding that overly cautious approaches can stifle innovation. Funding an independent studio in 2023 has not been easy. After three decades at EA, Webster found himself in a “bubble” and had to relearn how to secure capital and build a business from scratch.
His guiding principles remain simple: assemble a talented, motivated team; hone a clear creative vision; and maintain disciplined planning—while accepting that any plan will evolve. He stresses that a small, engaged core team can outperform a larger, less cohesive one, especially when supplemented by external partners. Fuse Games now numbers roughly 75 staff, a deliberately modest size for a project of AAA scope. Rather than expanding and contracting the internal workforce—a pattern Webster describes as “grow, shrink, grow, shrink”—the studio leans on a network of trusted external developers.
These partners range from transactional outsourcing for asset creation to full‑blown co‑development where outside studios sit in Fuse’s daily stand‑ups, Slack channels, and codebase. The UK, with its mature development ecosystem, proves especially fertile for such collaborations.
In the past, external studios were often reluctant to share credit, but today many are eager to work on diverse projects, keeping their talent fresh and motivated. Webster is convinced this hybrid model can deliver AAA‑level scope, fidelity, and polish on a sustainable budget. The rapid development timeline of Galactic Racer—just three and a half years from Fuse’s founding to a near‑ready product built on Unreal Engine 5—demonstrates the viability of the approach.
“We started Fuse in January 2023. Three and a half years later we have a studio, a team, and a game on an engine none of us previously knew,” he says proudly. A notable aspect of Fuse’s culture is its blend of seasoned veterans and fresh faces. While the studio includes Criterion alumni, it also hired many younger developers, some of whom had never set foot in a game studio before.
One producer, for example, came from outside the industry entirely. Webster lauds this youthful talent, claiming they often outperform older colleagues in creativity and efficiency.
He observes that senior developers sometimes prefer working with peers who need minimal guidance, but nurturing younger talent can be equally rewarding for both parties. Looking ahead, Webster hopes to formalize an internship program, inspired by Criterion’s successful initiatives, though he admits Fuse is still pre‑revenue and must be prudent about the costs of talent development.
He also reflects on a time when the industry was flush with cash and many successful developers were handed funding to start their own studios—only to discover how hard it truly is. He criticizes the lingering myth of the “single creative visionary” as “bullshit,” insisting that games are always collaborative efforts. As for Fuse’s next steps, the studio remains flexible.
The launch of Galactic Racer is just the beginning, and while they have ideas for future projects, they recognize that independent developers must stay adaptable in a constantly shifting market. Webster sums it up: “Good games will find a way. We’re hoping ours does too.”