Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay within Electronic Arts. He started at EA in 1990 and spent almost twenty years working on iconic franchises such as Burnout and Need for Speed under 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 studio in the United Kingdom called Fuse Games. Three and a half years later the fledgling studio is poised to ship its debut title, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, with publishing duties handled by the newly autonomous Secret Mode.
Galactic Racer arrives roughly 24 years after the last Star Wars‑themed racing game—2002’s Racer Revenge—at a moment when the racing genre has generally slipped out of the mainstream spotlight. Amazon recently walked away from a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for the upcoming driving title Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis stating that the market simply didn’t have room for another racer. Meanwhile Criterion, once a powerhouse of arcade‑style racing, has shifted its focus to the Battlefield franchise.
Despite these signals, Webster remains convinced that a demand exists. “We clearly see an audience for a Star Wars racing game,” he told GamesIndustry.biz. “Our community feedback and the interest we get from articles suggest we’re not the only ones who think so.” He argues that video‑game genres are cyclical. After a period dominated by shooters, other styles inevitably return to favor as the player base expands and even the tiniest sub‑genres find larger followings.
“People are craving fun, fresh, compelling experiences they haven’t seen before,” Webster said, adding that Galactic Racer aims to deliver exactly that. The design philosophy behind the game leans heavily into the instant gratification of classic arcade racers while also asking, “What can we do once we’re no longer bound by real‑world tyres and tarmac?” The answer, according to Webster, is tracks that climb the side of an active volcano, 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 thrills. Traditional racing titles have relied on a static car‑collection model for the past two decades.
Fuse wants to tear that model apart and borrow mechanics from other genres. The result is a game where player choices have tangible consequences, especially when crashes occur. In many modern racers, a “rewind” button erases the penalty of a mistake.
Fuse deliberately re‑introduces risk: crashing too often forces you back to the start, though you retain a portion of meta‑progress that puts you in a stronger position the next run. This risk‑reward loop mirrors the design of roguelike titles such as Hades, Returnal and Slay the Spire, which are built around infinite replayability. "Racing thrives on replayability," Webster notes, "so marrying it with roguelike principles feels like a match made in heaven." Webster acknowledges that this approach represents 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 before GTA 6’s November 19 debut but close to other high‑profile titles such as Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall, which dropped on September 24. While some observers warn that September is a crowded launch window, Webster points out that the industry has long endured busy pre‑holiday schedules. “October used to be called ‘Murderer’s Row,’ and it was packed with releases,” he recalls, emphasizing that Fuse maintains a “healthy confidence” tempered by realistic expectations.
The conversation turns to the broader market climate, where layoffs and risk‑averse funding have become commonplace. Webster, who has witnessed a wave of industry cuts, believes that great teams produce great games, and great games find their audiences. He sees the current aversion to risk as an opening for studios willing to take calculated bets. Yet he admits that securing financing for a new independent studio in 2023 was challenging.
After 32 years at EA, stepping into an independent venture felt like stepping into the unknown. His guiding principles—building a strong team, refining a clear creative vision, and staying disciplined while remaining adaptable—have helped navigate those waters. Fuse Games operates with a relatively lean core of about 75 staff, a deliberate choice to avoid the boom‑and‑bust staffing cycles that plague many large developers. Instead of expanding and contracting the internal team, Fuse supplements its capabilities through 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 highlights the UK’s mature development ecosystem as a fertile ground for such partnerships, noting that today’s external studios are eager to work on diverse projects, keeping their talent fresh and motivated. According to Webster, this hybrid model enables a studio to deliver AAA‑level scope, scale and visual fidelity on a more sustainable budget.
The rapid development timeline of Galactic Racer—just three and a half years from Fuse’s founding to a near‑complete product built on Unreal Engine 5—demonstrates the viability of the approach. "We started Fuse in January 2023 and have built a studio, a team, and a game on an engine none of us previously knew," he says, describing the achievement as both impressive and sustainable. A notable aspect of Fuse’s workforce is the infusion of young talent alongside seasoned veterans. Some team members, including a producer, have never worked in games before.
Webster praises the energy and effectiveness of these newcomers, claiming they have often outperformed more senior hires. He argues that nurturing young developers benefits both the mentors and the mentees, fostering a collaborative culture rather than the siloed environment sometimes preferred by older developers.
Looking ahead, Webster hopes to formalize an internship program to further develop emerging talent, though he admits the studio is still pre‑revenue and financially cautious. He reflects on a period five or six years ago when abundant funding allowed successful developers to spin off their own studios, only to discover the reality was far tougher than anticipated. He criticizes the industry’s lingering fascination with the myth of the lone creative visionary, calling it “bullshit” and emphasizing that games are always the product of collaborative effort. As for Fuse’s next steps, Webster says the launch of Galactic Racer is just the beginning.
The studio is open to exploring new opportunities and has a rough roadmap of future projects, but stresses that flexibility and adaptability are essential for independent developers in today’s unpredictable market.