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 working on the Burnout and Need for Speed franchises after EA acquired Criterion in 2004. In early 2023, however, Webster, together with former Criterion colleagues Steve Uphill, Pete Lake, Andrei Shires and Alan McDairmant, decided to strike out on their own and launch the independent UK studio Fuse Games.
Just over three years later the fledgling studio is poised 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 moment when the racing genre has lost much of its mainstream sparkle.
Amazon recently walked away from a publishing agreement with Maverick Games for the upcoming driving title Clutch, with Amazon Games head Jeff Gattis commenting 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 there is still a hungry audience for a Star Wars racing experience. “We clearly see a demand for a Star Wars racing game,” he told GamesIndustry.biz.
“Our community feedback and the buzz around our videos suggest we’re not the only ones who think so.” 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 grow into sizable markets,” Webster explained. Players, he says, are searching for "fun, interesting, compelling new experiences that they haven’t seen before," and he believes Galactic Racer delivers exactly that fresh feel. Fuse’s design philosophy embraces the instant‑gratification of classic arcade racers while also asking, "What can we do when we’re no longer 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. The team is deliberately breaking long‑standing genre conventions, such as the static car‑collection model that has persisted for two decades.
"Let’s rip that up and borrow ideas from other genres," Webster said. One of the most radical changes is the introduction of meaningful consequences for player mistakes. In many modern racers, a rewind mechanic erases the impact of crashing, removing tension. Fuse wants to bring that tension back.
Crashing too often forces the player to restart from the beginning of a run, but with a twist: a small amount of meta‑progression carries over, placing the player in a slightly stronger position the next attempt. 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, so combining it with roguelike mechanics feels like a match made in heaven," Webster noted.
The consequence system is meant to make each crash feel weighty. When a player is down to their final allowed crash, they must decide whether to push the limits of risk or play it safe, adding a strategic layer rarely seen in arcade racers. This design choice represents a bold departure from the hand‑holding that has become commonplace in AAA releases, especially as the industry gears up for blockbuster launches like GTA 6. Galactic Racer’s launch date—October 6—places it comfortably before GTA 6’s November 19 release, yet still close enough to benefit from the heightened media attention surrounding major fall releases such as Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall, both slated for September 24.
Webster acknowledges the crowded release calendar but remains confident. He recalls past years when September felt packed and yet developers still managed to stand out.
“October has always been busy, but we have a healthy sense of confidence tempered by a realistic view of how things might turn out,” he said. “Good games find a way.” The conversation inevitably turned to the wave of layoffs sweeping the industry. Having lived through a similar contraction fifteen years ago, Webster sees a pattern: great teams make great games, and great games find audiences.
He argues that the current aversion to risk creates opportunities for studios willing to make calculated bets. “If you shy away from risk, you limit your chance to succeed,” he warned. Launching a new studio in 2023 has not been easy.
Funding is scarce, and many skeptics questioned the wisdom of starting an independent studio after a 32‑year tenure at EA. Webster describes the experience as stepping out of a bubble into uncharted territory. His guiding principles remained the same: assemble a talented team, sharpen the creative vision, devise a disciplined plan (while accepting that plans are always imperfect), and stay true to core values. Engaged, motivated talent, he believes, is the engine that drives exceptional games.
Fuse Games operates with a relatively lean core—around 75 people—by design. Rather than inflating the team size only to downsize later, the studio relies on external partners to fill capability gaps. This hybrid model blends transactional outsourcing for asset creation with deeper co‑development relationships where external studios attend daily stand‑ups, participate in Slack channels, and share codebases.
Webster highlights the UK’s mature development ecosystem as a fertile ground for such collaboration, noting that today’s studios are eager to work across multiple projects, keeping their staff fresh and enthusiastic. According to Webster, this approach proves that a AAA‑scale game can be delivered on a sustainable budget without the traditional boom‑bust staffing cycles. The rapid development timeline of Galactic Racer—just three and a half years from Fuse’s founding to a near‑complete UE5‑powered title—demonstrates the efficacy of this model.
Another noteworthy aspect of Fuse’s journey is its emphasis on nurturing young talent. While the studio includes veteran Criterion alumni, many of its developers are newcomers to the industry, and one producer had never worked on a game before joining the project. "The younger team members are often smarter and more effective than I was at their age," Webster said, expressing surprise at how much success they have achieved compared to some senior hires. He argues that seasoned developers sometimes prefer working with peers who require little guidance, which can stifle growth.
In contrast, mentoring junior staff energizes both parties and fosters a collaborative culture. Looking ahead, Webster hopes to formalize an internship program to continue feeding fresh talent into the studio, though he admits Fuse 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 teams received funding to spin off their own studios—only to discover that running a studio is far harder than building a hit game. He criticizes the lingering myth of the "single creative visionary" as "bullshit," emphasizing that games are the product of collaborative effort.
As for Fuse’s next steps, the future remains open‑ended. The launch of Galactic Racer is just the beginning, and the studio is already exploring potential opportunities and ideas. However, Webster stresses that independent developers must stay flexible and adaptable in an ever‑changing market. "We have a vision for where we want to go, but we’ll have to adjust as circumstances evolve," he concluded.