Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay within the walls of Electronic Arts. He started at the company in 1990 and spent almost twenty years developing titles for Criterion, the studio behind Burnout and Need for Speed that 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 their own independent studio in the United Kingdom – Fuse Games. Just over three years later the fledgling studio is poised to release 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 moment when the racing genre has struggled to capture mainstream attention. Amazon recently walked away from a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for the upcoming driving title Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis explaining that the market simply didn’t seem to fit the product. Meanwhile, Criterion itself has shifted focus away from pure racing, devoting its resources to 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 response we get from 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 types inevitably resurface. “As more people play games, even the tiniest niches can find a larger audience,” Webster explained. He believes players are hungry for "fun, interesting, compelling new experiences they haven’t seen before," and he feels Galactic Racer delivers exactly that fresh spark.
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, includes tracks that climb the side of an active volcano and courses that feel more like roller‑coasters than traditional circuits. Beyond the high‑octane thrills, the game aims to upend long‑standing genre conventions.
For decades, most racing games have been built around a car‑collection model that rarely changes. "Let’s rip that up and borrow ideas from other genres," Webster said. One of those borrowed ideas is the notion of meaningful consequence, a concept often diluted in modern racers by the safety net of a rewind button. In Galactic Racer, crashing carries weight: too many crashes send the player back to the start, though some meta‑progression carries over, placing the player in a slightly stronger position.
This risk‑reward loop forces players to weigh each maneuver, especially when they’re down to their final crash and the stakes feel critical. Webster also cites roguelike influences such as Hades, Returnal and Slay the Spire.
Those games are engineered for infinite replayability, a trait that dovetails naturally with racing, a genre that thrives on repeated attempts to shave seconds off a time. By integrating procedural elements, persistent upgrades, and a death‑penalty system, Galactic Racer aspires to become a "match made in heaven" for fans who love both high‑speed competition and the lure of endless variation.
Releasing the game on October 6 places it a month before the highly anticipated GTA 6 launch 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 reminds us that the industry has weathered busier windows before.
"Someone once said September looks busy, but I remember the old ‘murderers’ row’ in October when the market was packed," he recalled. Fuse approaches the competition with a "healthy sense of confidence" tempered by realism. "Good games find a way," he said, echoing a mantra that has guided him through multiple industry downturns.
Speaking about the recent wave of layoffs, Webster observes that risk‑averse strategies dominate the current climate, which in turn creates openings for studios willing to take calculated bets. He warns against the industry’s lingering worship of the lone visionary, calling it "bullshit" and insisting that great games are the product of collaborative effort. Funding an independent studio in 2023 proved challenging. After 32 years at EA, Webster found himself stepping out of a comfortable bubble.
He relied on core principles: assembling a talented team, sharpening a clear creative vision, and maintaining disciplined planning—while accepting that any plan is provisional and must be constantly refined. "Engaged and motivated talent makes great things," he emphasized, noting that the studio deliberately kept its core staff small, around 75 people, to avoid the boom‑bust staffing cycles that plague many AAA projects. Instead of expanding and contracting internally, Fuse leverages external development partners. These relationships range from pure outsourcing—transactional asset creation—to deep co‑development, where external studios sit in Fuse’s daily stand‑ups, Slack channels, and code repositories as if they were an extension of the core team.
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 on diverse projects rather than being locked into a single proprietary title. Webster believes this hybrid model—small permanent core plus trusted external partners—offers a sustainable path to AAA‑level scope, scale and visual fidelity without the prohibitive budgets traditionally associated with such ambitions.
The rapid development timeline of Galactic Racer illustrates the model’s viability: Fuse launched in January 2023, and just three and a half years later they have delivered a full‑featured game built on Unreal Engine 5, a technology none of the team initially mastered. Another striking aspect of Fuse’s approach is its embrace of youthful talent. While the studio includes veteran Criterion alumni, many of its developers are newcomers, and at least one producer had never worked in games before joining the project. "The young talent we’ve got is smarter and more effective in many ways than I was at that age," Webster said, praising the fresh perspectives they bring.
He argues that nurturing junior staff benefits both the mentors and the mentees, fostering a collaborative culture that outweighs the traditional reliance on senior‑only teams. Looking ahead, Webster hopes to formalise an internship programme to further cultivate emerging developers, though he admits the studio is still pre‑revenue and must be realistic about the costs involved.
He reflects on a period five or six years ago when the industry was flush with cash and many successful developers were encouraged to spin off their own studios—often only to discover the venture was harder than expected. "Money should go to great teams, not just to superstar creators," he contended, dismissing the myth of the singular creative visionary as a harmful narrative. As for Fuse’s next steps, the future remains open‑ended. The launch of Galactic Racer is just the beginning, and while the studio has ideas for subsequent projects, Webster stresses the need for flexibility and adaptability in today’s independent development landscape.
The team’s confidence, combined with a willingness to experiment with genre‑blending mechanics and innovative production models, positions them to navigate the ever‑changing market and perhaps inspire other studios to rethink how AAA‑quality games can be built sustainably.