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 developing the iconic Burnout and Need for Speed series after EA acquired Criterion 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 studio in the United Kingdom 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 racing game, 2002’s Racer Revenge, and it does so at a moment when the racing genre has lost much of its mainstream momentum. Amazon recently walked away from a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for its upcoming driving title Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis stating that the market simply didn’t have room for another racer.
Criterion itself has shifted focus away from racing, now pouring its resources into the Battlefield franchise. Despite these signals, Webster is convinced a market still exists. “We clearly believe there’s 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 viewers and readers suggests we’re not alone.” He points out that genres tend to be cyclical.
After a period dominated by shooters, other styles inevitably rise again. “As more people play video games, even the tiniest niches can find a larger audience,” he explained. Webster argues that gamers are hungry for "fun, interesting, compelling new experiences they haven’t seen before," and he feels Galactic Racer delivers exactly that. The team set out to capture the instant‑gratification feel of classic arcade racers while also exploring what can be done when you’re no longer bound by realistic tyres and tarmac.
“We have tracks that climb the side of an active volcano,” he said, describing a course that feels like a roller‑coaster ride. Beyond the arcade thrills, the game deliberately subverts long‑standing racing conventions.
Most racing titles rely on a car‑collection model that has changed little in two decades. Webster wants to rip that formula apart and borrow mechanics from other genres. One such borrowing comes from roguelike games such as Hades, Returnal and Slay the Spire, which are built around infinite replayability. "Racing thrives on replayability, so combining it with roguelike principles feels like a match made in heaven," he noted.
A concrete example of this hybrid design is the way crashes are handled. In many modern racers, a rewind button removes any penalty for crashing, diluting the sense of risk. Galactic Racer re‑introduces consequence: too many crashes send the player back to the start, but they retain a portion of meta‑progression, emerging from the reset in a slightly stronger position. This creates a tension between risk and reward that forces players to weigh each maneuver carefully, especially when they’re on their final allowed crash.
Webster acknowledges that launching a new IP in a crowded release window is risky, especially with blockbuster titles like GTA 6 slated for November 19. Galactic Racer is set for an October 6 launch, which places it between several high‑profile releases such as Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall (both September 24).
He notes that the industry has always had busy periods; “people used to call October ‘murderer’s row’ because it was packed with games,” he recalled, adding that Fuse approaches the market with a “healthy confidence tempered by a realistic view of how things may turn out.” The conversation naturally shifted to the broader industry climate, including the wave of layoffs that has swept through major studios. Webster, who has witnessed a similar contraction fifteen years ago, believes that great teams make great games, and great games find an audience. He argues that the current aversion to risk creates opportunities for studios willing to take calculated bets. “If you shy away from risk, you limit your chances,” he said.
Funding, however, has not been easy for the newly independent studio. “People told me I was brave to start an indie studio in 2023 after 32 years at EA,” Webster recalled.
He emphasized that the core principles he learned at EA—building a strong team, refining a clear creative vision, and staying disciplined while remaining adaptable—have guided Fuse’s development process. The studio deliberately kept its core staff small, around 75 people, to avoid the typical “grow‑shrink‑grow‑shrink” cycle that plagues many large developers. Instead of scaling the internal team up and down, Fuse relies heavily on external partners.
These collaborations range from transactional outsourcing for asset creation to full co‑development arrangements where external studios participate in daily stand‑ups, Slack channels, and even share the codebase. Webster highlighted the UK’s mature game‑development ecosystem as a fertile ground for such partnerships, noting that today’s studios are eager to work on diverse projects rather than being locked into a single title.
Webster believes this hybrid model—small permanent core plus trusted external collaborators—could become the blueprint for sustainable AAA‑scale development. He points out that the rapid pace of Galactic Racer’s creation demonstrates its viability: Fuse was founded in January 2023, and three and a half years later the team has built a studio, assembled a team, and delivered a game on Unreal Engine 5 despite initially having no experience with that engine. A notable aspect of Fuse’s workforce is the blend of veteran Criterion talent with a wave of younger developers, some of whom have never worked in games before. “Our young talent is often smarter and more effective than I was at their age,” Webster said.
He observed that senior developers sometimes prefer to work with equally senior colleagues who need little guidance, but that nurturing junior talent can be equally motivating for both parties. The studio hopes to formalize an internship program in the future, though they remain pre‑revenue at present. Reflecting on a time when the industry was flush with cash, Webster recalled how many successful developers were given funding to start their own studios, only to discover that building a company is far harder than creating a single game. He criticized the lingering myth of the “single creative visionary,” calling it “bullshit” and insisting that games are always the product of collaborative effort.
Looking ahead, Fuse Games remains open‑ended about its next steps. “The launch is just the start for us,” Webster said. “We’ll be talking to partners about future opportunities, and we have ideas about where we want to go, but as an independent studio we have to stay flexible and adaptable.”