Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay within Electronic Arts. He arrived 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 fellow Criterion alumni Steve Uphill, Pete Lake, Andrei Shires and Alan McDairmant to launch their own independent UK studio, Fuse Games. Three and a half years later the fledgling team is preparing 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‑themed racing game, 2002’s Racer Revenge, and it does so at a time when the racing genre has generally lost steam. Amazon recently walked away from a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for a forthcoming driving title called Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis noting that the market simply didn’t seem to need another racer. Even Criterion, once a powerhouse of arcade‑style speed, has pivoted away from cars to focus on the Battlefield franchise.
Despite these signals, Webster remains convinced there is still a hungry audience for a Star Wars racing experience. "We clearly see a demand for a Star Wars‑based racer," he told GamesIndustry.biz. "Our community, the people who watch our dev videos and read our updates, echo that sentiment – we’re not the only ones who think this genre still has life." He points out that entertainment trends are cyclical.
While shooters dominated the market for a while, other genres inevitably return to prominence as the player base broadens. "The more people who play video games, the larger even the tiniest niche becomes," Webster added. According to Webster, gamers today crave "fun, interesting, compelling new experiences they haven’t seen before," and he believes Galactic Racer delivers exactly that.
The team set out to capture the instant gratification of classic arcade racers while also asking, "What can we do when we’re no longer bound by realistic tyres and tarmac?" The answer, he says, is tracks that climb the sides of active volcanoes, courses that feel more like roller‑coasters than highways, and a visual language that embraces the fantastical possibilities of the Star Wars universe. Beyond the high‑octane thrills, Galactic Racer deliberately subverts long‑standing racing conventions. Traditional racers have relied on a car‑collection model for the past two decades – earn money, buy new vehicles, repeat. Webster wants to tear that formula 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 erases mistakes, but Fuse wants crashes to matter. "If you smash too many times you’re sent back to the start, but you keep some meta‑progression that puts you in a stronger position," he explains. "When you’re on your final crash, the tension is real – you feel the risk, you feel the stakes." The design philosophy draws heavily from roguelike titles such as Hades, Returnal and Slay the Spire, games celebrated for infinite replayability.
"Racing is inherently replay‑driven; you always want to shave a fraction of a second off your time," Webster notes. "Combine that with roguelike loops and you get a match made in heaven." Webster acknowledges that this approach is a bold departure from the hand‑holding common in many AAA releases, especially as the industry prepares for blockbuster launches like GTA 6.
Galactic Racer is slated for an October 6 release, comfortably ahead of GTA 6’s November 19 launch but still nestled among other high‑profile titles such as Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall, both dropping on September 24. He reminds us that crowded release windows are nothing new; "back in the day we called October ‘Murderer’s Row’ because it was packed with big releases." Confidence, however, is tempered with realism. "Good games find a way," Webster says, echoing a mantra he’s heard throughout his long career. He reflects on the wave of industry layoffs, noting that great teams produce great games, and great games attract audiences.
He also observes a growing aversion to risk within larger studios, which he believes opens doors for smaller, more daring developers willing to bet on unconventional ideas. Funding an independent studio in 2023 has not been easy. "People told me I was brave for starting a studio now," he recalls.
After three decades at EA, stepping into the unknown required a reliance on core principles: assemble a talented team, crystallise a clear creative vision, and maintain disciplined planning while staying flexible enough to adapt when the plan proves wrong. "Engaged, motivated talent creates great things, so it’s our job to keep them inspired," he says. Fuse Games operates with a relatively lean core – about 75 people – a deliberate choice to avoid the boom‑and‑bust staffing cycles that plague many larger studios.
Instead, they supplement the core with external partners, ranging from transactional outsourcing for asset creation to deep co‑development where outside studios sit in on daily stand‑ups, Slack channels and even share the code base. Webster highlights the UK’s mature development ecosystem as a fertile ground for such collaborations, noting that today’s external studios are eager to work on diverse projects rather than simply keeping the lights on. He believes this hybrid model – a small permanent team augmented by trusted partners – could become the new standard for AAA‑scale production on sustainable budgets.
The rapid development timeline of Galactic Racer illustrates the viability of this approach: Fuse launched in January 2023, and within three and a half years they built a studio, assembled a team, learned Unreal Engine 5 from scratch, and delivered a full‑scale title. Another striking element of Fuse’s story is the infusion of youthful talent. While the studio’s leadership includes veterans from Criterion, many of the developers are newcomers to the industry, and one producer had never worked on a game before joining the project. "The young talent we’ve hired is often smarter and more effective than we were at that age," Webster says proudly.
He observes that seasoned developers sometimes prefer senior colleagues who need little guidance, but nurturing younger staff not only accelerates innovation but also keeps senior members engaged. The studio hopes to formalise an internship program in the future, though he cautions that they are still pre‑revenue and must be realistic about the costs of talent development.
Looking back to the mid‑2010s, when the industry was flush with capital, Webster remembers a trend where successful studios handed funding to individual “super‑star” developers to start their own ventures. He argues that this focus on a singular creative visionary was misguided.
"Games are collaborative creations, not the product of one lone genius," he asserts, calling the myth of the solo visionary "complete nonsense." As for what lies beyond Galactic Racer, Fuse Games remains open‑minded. The launch is just the first chapter, and the studio is already contemplating future projects, though they admit that flexibility and adaptability are essential for independent developers today. "We have ideas, we have a direction, but we’ll have to stay nimble and respond to the market as it evolves," Webster concludes.