Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay within the walls of Electronic Arts. He started at EA in 1990 and spent almost twenty years contributing to the Burnout and Need for Speed franchises while they were under the Criterion banner, a studio EA acquired in 2004. In early 2023, however, Webster, along with fellow Criterion alumni Steve Uphill, Pete Lake, Andrei Shires and Alan McDairmant, decided to strike out on their own and launch the independent UK studio Fuse Games.
Three and a half years later the fledgling studio is poised to debut its inaugural title, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, which will be published by the newly independent 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 time when the racing genre has generally slipped out of the mainstream spotlight.
Recent industry news underscores this shift: Amazon withdrew from a publishing agreement with UK studio 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 racing game. Meanwhile, Criterion, once a powerhouse of arcade‑style racers, has redirected its talent toward the Battlefield franchise. Despite these signals, Webster remains convinced there is still a viable audience for a Star Wars racing experience. “We clearly believe there’s a market for a Star Wars‑themed racer,” he told GamesIndustry.biz.
“We’re not the only ones who think that, and the response we get from people watching our videos or reading our 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 and more people play video games, even the tiniest niches find a bigger audience,” Webster added.
Webster says players 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 can be done when a game is no longer bound by the physics of real‑world tyres and tarmac.
“We have tracks that climb the side of an active volcano,” he explained. “It’s like a roller‑coaster at times.” Beyond the high‑octane thrills, Galactic Racer is deliberately challenging long‑standing conventions of the racing genre. Traditionally, racers have relied on a car‑collection model that has remained largely unchanged for two decades.
Webster wants to tear that formula apart and borrow mechanics from other genres. One of the most striking innovations is the introduction of meaningful consequences for crashing. In many modern racers, a rewind button erases the penalty for mistakes, but Fuse wants to re‑introduce risk.
“If you crash too many times you’re sent back to the start, but you carry some meta‑progression forward,” he said. “When you’re on your last allowed crash, you start to feel the weight of that decision.” The game’s structure draws inspiration from roguelike titles such as Hades, Returnal and Slay the Spire—games designed for infinite replayability. "Racing thrives on replayability, so pairing it with roguelike loops feels like a match made in heaven," Webster noted.
This hybrid approach aims to keep players engaged long after they finish the initial race, encouraging them to experiment with different strategies, upgrades and risk‑taking behaviours. Webster acknowledges that launching a new IP in a crowded calendar is a bold move, especially with heavyweight releases like GTA 6 slated for November 19. Galactic Racer is set to drop on October 6, sandwiched between September’s blockbuster launches such as Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall (September 24). He notes that the industry has long dealt with packed pre‑holiday windows.
“People used to call September ‘murderer’s row,’ but October has always been busy too,” he recalled. Fuse Games approaches the competition with a “healthy sense of confidence” tempered by a realistic view of how the market might respond.
The conversation naturally turned to the wave of layoffs sweeping the industry. Having weathered a similar contraction fifteen years ago, Webster observes that great teams produce great games, and great games find an audience. He warns that the current climate is marked by an aversion to risk, which paradoxically creates opportunities for studios willing to make calculated bets. “If you’re not willing to take those risks, you limit your chances,” he said.
Funding, however, has not been easy for the newly formed studio. “People told me I was brave to start an independent studio in 2023,” Webster recalled. After thirty‑two years at EA, he found himself navigating a very different landscape.
He emphasized a core philosophy: assemble a talented team, refine a clear creative vision, and maintain disciplined planning—while accepting that any plan will evolve. Engaged, motivated talent, he believes, is the engine that drives great games. Fuse Games remains relatively small for a title with AAA aspirations, employing roughly 75 people.
This size is intentional; the studio aims to avoid the boom‑and‑bust staffing cycles that plague many developers. Instead, Fuse leans on external partners to fill capability gaps.
"We’re not doing the grow‑shrink‑grow‑shrink process," Webster explained. "Our model is a permanent, lean core team supplemented by trusted external studios that share our values." External collaboration takes many forms, from transactional outsourcing for asset creation to full co‑development where partner studios sit in on daily stand‑ups, Slack channels and even share codebases. The UK, with its mature game‑development ecosystem, is an ideal hub for such partnerships. In the past, studios were reluctant to collaborate, but today many companies hire developers who are eager to move between projects, keeping the talent pool fresh and enthusiastic.
Webster believes this hybrid model—small core plus flexible external support—makes it possible to deliver a game of AAA scope on a sustainable budget. The rapid development timeline of Galactic Racer testifies to that.
"We founded Fuse in January 2023. Three and a half years later we have a studio, a team, and a game built on Unreal Engine 5, a technology none of us previously mastered. It feels like an achievement, and we did it in a healthy, sustainable way," he said.
A notable aspect of Fuse’s workforce is the infusion of younger developers. While the studio includes veteran Criterion alumni, many team members are fresh faces, and one producer had never worked in games before joining. "The young talent we have is astonishingly smart and effective—often more so than I was at that age," Webster praised.
He observed that senior developers sometimes prefer to work alongside equally experienced peers, but nurturing younger talent can be equally motivating for everyone involved. This insight has already influenced Fuse’s hiring strategy. Looking ahead, Webster hopes to formalise an internship program to further cultivate emerging talent, though he admits the studio is still pre‑revenue and financially cautious. He references Criterion’s successful intern initiatives as a model.
"You have to go into it with your eyes wide open and recognise the cost of developing talent," he warned. Reflecting on the industry’s earlier days of abundant funding, Webster recalls a time when successful games often spawned spin‑off studios backed by generous capital. Many of those ventures struggled because they underestimated the challenges of running an independent studio.
He argues that money should be allocated to strong teams rather than to the myth of a singular creative visionary—a notion he calls "fucking bullshit." In reality, games are collaborative creations. As for Fuse’s next steps, the future remains fluid. The launch of Galactic Racer is just the beginning, and the studio is already considering new opportunities and directions.
"Independent developers need to stay flexible and adaptable," Webster concluded, emphasizing that the journey ahead will be shaped by both market conditions and the studio’s own evolving ambitions.