Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay within the walls of Electronic Arts. He started at the company in 1990 and spent nearly twenty years contributing to the Burnout and Need for Speed franchises after EA acquired Criterion in 2004.
Yet in early 2023 he, along with former Criterion colleagues Steve Uphill, Pete Lake, Andrei Shires and Alan McDairmant, chose to break away and launch their own independent studio in the United Kingdom, Fuse Games. Fast‑forward a little more than three years, and the fledgling studio is poised to release its debut title, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, under the banner of the newly independent publisher Secret Mode. The timing of Galactic Racer’s arrival is noteworthy.
The last Star Wars‑themed racing game, Racer Revenge, hit shelves in 2002 – a full twenty‑four years ago. In the intervening decades, the racing genre has struggled to maintain a prominent place on the market.
Amazon recently cancelled a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for a forthcoming driving title called Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis remarking that the project didn’t fit the current market landscape. 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 exists for a Star Wars racing experience. “We clearly think there’s an audience for a Star Wars racing game,” he told GamesIndustry.biz. “We’re not the only ones who feel that way, and the response we get from viewers of our videos and readers of our articles suggests we’re not alone.” He adds that gaming trends tend to be cyclical. “Shooters dominated for a while, but that’s not the only genre that can capture players’ attention.
As more people play video games, even the tiniest niches can find a larger audience.” Webster argues that modern gamers are hungry for "fun, interesting, compelling new experiences that 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 exploring what becomes possible when a game is no longer bound by the physics of tires and tarmac. “We have tracks that climb the side of an active volcano,” he explains.
“Sometimes it feels more like a roller‑coaster than a traditional circuit.” Beyond the high‑octane thrills, Galactic Racer aims to upend several long‑standing conventions of the racing genre. Traditionally, racers have relied on a car‑collection model that has changed little in the past two decades. Webster wants to tear that model 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 eliminates any penalty for a mistake, but Fuse wants to bring the risk back. "If you crash too many times you’re sent back to the start," he says, "but you retain some meta‑progression that puts you in a stronger position the next run. The final crash feels tense because you’re forced to weigh risk versus reward." The design philosophy draws heavily from roguelike titles such as Hades, Returnal, and Slay the Spire—games built around infinite replayability.
"Racing thrives on replayability," Webster notes, "so marrying it with roguelike loops feels like a match made in heaven." Each run offers a fresh arrangement of obstacles, power‑ups and shortcuts, encouraging players to experiment and adapt. The meta‑progression system ensures that even after a failure, the player feels a sense of forward momentum, a design choice intended to keep engagement high over long periods.
Launching the game on October 6 places it in a crowded autumn window that also includes heavyweights like Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall (both released September 24) and the highly anticipated GTA 6 slated for November 19. Webster acknowledges the competitive landscape but points out that crowded release calendars are nothing new. "I remember hearing about ‘Murderer’s Row’ years ago when October was packed with major releases," he says. "We have a healthy confidence tempered by a realistic view of how the market might respond." The conversation inevitably turns to the wave of layoffs sweeping the industry.
Webster, who has witnessed a similar bout of cuts fifteen years prior, believes that strong teams produce great games, and great games find their audience. He warns that an industry-wide aversion to risk can stifle innovation, yet he also sees opportunity for studios willing to take calculated bets.
"If you’re not willing to risk, you limit your chances for success," he observes. Funding an independent studio in 2023 has not been easy. Webster recounts how many people questioned the wisdom of starting a new studio after three decades at EA. He emphasizes a core set of principles that guided Fuse: assemble a talented team, hone a clear creative vision, and maintain disciplined planning while remaining flexible enough to adapt when the plan proves imperfect.
"Engaged and motivated talent makes great things," he says, "so it’s our job to keep that talent inspired." Fuse Games remains relatively small for a project of AAA ambition, employing roughly 75 people. This size is intentional; the studio wants to avoid the industry’s typical pattern of rapid expansion followed by sudden contraction.
Instead, Fuse relies on a network of external partners to fill skill gaps. "We’re not doing the grow‑shrink‑grow‑shrink cycle," Webster explains.
"Our model is a lean core team supplemented by trusted collaborators who share our values." External development at Fuse spans a spectrum from transactional outsourcing—where a partner delivers specific assets—to deep co‑development, where an external studio participates in daily stand‑ups, Slack channels, and even the codebase. The UK, with its mature game‑development ecosystem, proves especially fertile for this approach. In the past, studios were reluctant to share work, fearing competition; today, many companies enjoy collaborating on diverse projects, keeping their staff fresh and motivated.
Webster believes this hybrid model can deliver AAA‑level scope, scale and visual fidelity on a sustainable budget. The rapid development timeline of Galactic Racer serves as proof: Fuse was founded in January 2023, and just three and a half years later the team has built a studio, assembled a workforce, and created a game on Unreal Engine 5—a technology none of them had previously mastered.
"It feels like an achievement, and we’ve done it in a healthy, sustainable way," he says. A notable aspect of Fuse’s workforce is the infusion of young talent. While the studio includes veterans from Criterion, many team members are newcomers to the industry, and one producer had never worked on a game before joining. Webster praises this fresh perspective: "The younger developers are often smarter and more effective than I was at their age.
We’ve seen greater success with them than with some of the senior hires we brought in." He also observes that seasoned developers sometimes prefer to work with peers who require minimal mentorship, which can hinder the growth of younger staff. By deliberately nurturing junior talent, Fuse hopes to create a more dynamic and collaborative environment. In the future, Webster envisions establishing a formal internship program, though he admits the studio is still pre‑revenue and must be realistic about the costs involved.
He points to Criterion’s successful intern initiatives as a model they hope to emulate. Reflecting on the boom years of roughly five to six years ago, when abundant funding allowed successful developers to spin off their own studios, Webster notes that many of those ventures struggled because the capital was often tied to individual “superstar” creators rather than solid teams.
He calls the industry’s fixation on a singular creative visionary "bullshit," emphasizing that games are fundamentally collaborative endeavors. Looking ahead, Fuse Games does not have a fixed roadmap. The launch of Galactic Racer is just the beginning, and the studio remains open to exploring new opportunities and directions.
"As an independent developer you have to stay flexible and adaptable," Webster says. "We have ideas for what we want to do next, but we’ll let the market and our own growth dictate the path forward."