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 iconic franchises such as Burnout and Need for Speed while working at Criterion, the studio EA acquired 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 UK studio called Fuse Games.
Three and a half years later the fledgling studio is preparing to ship 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‑themed racing game, 2002’s Racer Revenge, and it does so at a moment when traditional racing games have lost some of their mainstream appeal. 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. Meanwhile, Criterion itself has pivoted away from pure racing projects to focus on the Battlefield franchise.
Despite these signals, Webster remains convinced that a demand exists. “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 reaction to our videos and articles suggests we’re not alone.” He points out that video‑game genres tend to be cyclical. After a period dominated by shooters, other genres inevitably resurface. “As more people play video games, even the tiniest niche can find a larger audience,” Webster explains.
He believes players are hungry for fresh, compelling experiences that they haven’t yet seen, and he feels Galactic Racer delivers exactly that. Fuse’s design philosophy embraces 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, according to Webster, is tracks that climb the sides of active volcanoes, courses that feel like roller‑coasters, and other gravity‑defying set‑pieces that would be impossible in a realistic simulation.
Yet the ambition goes beyond visual spectacle. Webster wants to upend long‑standing genre conventions, particularly the entrenched car‑collection model that has defined racing games for the past two decades. “Let’s rip that up and borrow ideas from other genres,” he says. One of those borrowed ideas is the notion of meaningful consequence, a concept often muted in modern racers by the safety net of rewind mechanics.
In Galactic Racer, crashing has real weight: too many crashes send you back to the start of a run, though you retain a sliver of meta‑progress that puts you in a slightly stronger position the next attempt. This risk‑reward loop forces players to weigh aggression against caution, especially when they’re on their final allowable crash and the stakes feel critical. Webster also draws inspiration from roguelike titles such as Hades, Returnal and Slay the Spire, which are built around infinite replayability.
“Racing thrives on replayability, so marrying it with roguelike principles feels like a match made in heaven,” he notes. The resulting structure encourages players to experiment, learn from each failure, and return stronger, echoing the loop that has made roguelikes so addictive. Releasing a new IP in a crowded calendar is a bold move, especially with heavyweight titles like GTA 6 slated for November 19.
Galactic Racer is set to launch on October 6, a comfortable gap from the GTA release but still close to other major September launches such as Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall. Webster acknowledges the crowded window but reminds us that the industry has weathered busier periods before.
“People used to call October ‘murderers’ row,’ and it was always packed with releases,” he says, adding that Fuse approaches the market with a “healthy sense of confidence tempered by a realistic view of how things may turn out.” The conversation inevitably turns to the broader industry climate, marked by layoffs and a pervasive aversion to risk. Webster, who has witnessed multiple waves of downsizing over his 30‑plus‑year career, argues that great teams make great games, and great games find an audience. He sees the current risk‑averse environment as an opening for studios willing to take calculated bets.
“If you’re not willing to risk, you limit opportunity,” he observes. Funding, however, remains a hurdle for new independent studios. Webster recounts the skepticism he faced when announcing Fuse in 2023: “People were like, ‘you’re brave doing an indie studio in 2023.’” After three decades at EA, he had to relearn how to secure capital, assemble talent, and craft a disciplined development plan. His mantra became: build a strong team, refine a clear creative vision, accept that plans will change, and stay true to core values.
Engaged, motivated staff, he believes, are the engine of great games. Fuse’s team is deliberately kept small—about 75 people—so the studio can avoid the industry’s typical “grow‑shrink‑grow‑shrink” cycle.
Instead, Fuse relies on a network of external partners to fill skill gaps. This hybrid model blends transactional outsourcing for asset creation with deeper co‑development relationships where external studios sit in Fuse’s daily stand‑ups, Slack channels, and code repositories. Webster highlights the UK’s mature game‑development ecosystem as a fertile ground for such collaborations, noting that today’s studios are eager to work across projects rather than cling to a single internal title. Webster is convinced that this lean‑core‑plus‑partners approach can deliver AAA‑level scope, scale and visual fidelity on a sustainable budget.
The rapid development timeline of Galactic Racer—just three and a half years from studio inception to a near‑finished product built on Unreal Engine 5—serves as proof of concept. Another noteworthy aspect of Fuse’s journey is the infusion of youthful talent.
While the studio includes veterans from Criterion, many of its developers are newcomers, and one producer had never worked in games before joining the project. “The young talent we’ve hired is often smarter and more effective than I was at their age,” Webster says.
He argues that nurturing junior staff not only energizes the team but also yields better outcomes than relying solely on senior hires who may prefer minimal interaction. The studio hopes to formalize an internship program in the future, though it remains pre‑revenue and cautious about the costs of talent development.
Reflecting on a period when the industry was flush with cash, Webster remembers how successful developers were handed funding to start their own studios, only to discover how hard it truly is to build a sustainable business. He criticizes the lingering myth of the “single creative visionary” as “bullshit,” insisting that games are always the product of collaborative effort. Looking ahead, Fuse Games remains flexible. While the launch of Galactic Racer marks a major milestone, Webster acknowledges that the studio will continue to explore new opportunities and adapt its strategy as an independent developer.
He concludes with a hopeful note: “Good games will find a way, and we’re hoping ours does too.”