Matt Webster’s career once seemed destined to stay within Electronic Arts. He started at the company in 1990 and spent nearly twenty years at Criterion, the studio behind Burnout and Need for Speed, which 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 UK studio called 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 time when the racing genre has generally lost steam. Amazon recently walked away from a publishing agreement with 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 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. "Clearly we 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 genres inevitably resurface.
"As more people play games, even the tiniest niche can find a larger audience," Webster added. According to Webster, modern gamers 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 racing while also asking, "What can we do when we’re no longer bound by tyres and tarmac?" The answer includes tracks that climb the side of an active volcano and courses that feel like roller‑coasters, offering a sense of spectacle that goes beyond ordinary road circuits. Beyond the visual flair, Fuse Games is deliberately breaking several long‑standing conventions of the racing genre. Traditional racers have relied on a car‑collection model for decades; Webster wants to scrap that and borrow mechanics from other genres. He highlights the importance of meaningful consequences, using crashes as a concrete example.
In many contemporary racers a rewind button nullifies any penalty, but Galactic Racer re‑introduces risk: too many crashes send you back to the start, though you retain a degree of meta‑progression that makes each subsequent attempt slightly stronger. This design is inspired by roguelike titles such as Hades, Returnal and Slay the Spire, which prioritize infinite replayability. "Racing thrives on replayability," Webster argued, "so marrying it with roguelike principles feels like a perfect match." The game’s risk‑reward system forces players to weigh each maneuver carefully, especially when they are down to their final crash.
The tension of that moment, according to Webster, is exactly the kind of engagement modern gamers seek, a stark contrast to the hand‑holding often found in AAA releases. Timing the launch is another strategic decision.
Galactic Racer is slated for October 6, comfortably ahead of the highly anticipated GTA 6 release on November 19, yet close enough to benefit from the heightened consumer attention surrounding major fall releases such as Control: Resonance and Silent Hill: Townfall, both arriving on September 24. Webster acknowledges the crowded calendar but notes that the industry has weathered even busier pre‑Christmas windows in the past. "October has always been busy – we call it ‘murderers’ row’ – and we’re confident our game can stand out," he said.
The conversation inevitably turns to the broader industry climate, especially the wave of layoffs that has swept through studios. Webster, who has witnessed a similar contraction fifteen years ago, believes that great teams produce great games, and great games find their audience.
He warns that an industry averse to risk can limit opportunity, but also sees that risk‑taking can create space for innovative projects like Galactic Racer. Funding a new studio in 2023 proved challenging. After 32 years at EA, Webster found himself navigating a landscape where investors were skeptical of independent ventures.
He emphasizes a disciplined approach: building a solid team, refining a clear creative vision, and remaining adaptable when plans inevitably shift. Engaged and motivated talent, he argues, is the engine that drives success.
Fuse Games operates with a relatively lean core of about 75 staff, a conscious choice to avoid the boom‑and‑bust staffing cycles common in larger studios. Instead, the studio relies heavily on external partners for both transactional asset creation and deeper co‑development. External teams are integrated into daily stand‑ups, Slack channels and even the codebase, effectively becoming extensions of Fuse.
The UK’s mature development ecosystem makes this model especially viable, with many companies now eager to collaborate across projects rather than guarding their own silos. Webster believes this hybrid model—small permanent core plus trusted external collaborators—offers a sustainable path to AAA‑level scope, scale and visual fidelity without the ballooning budgets that traditionally accompany such ambitions. The rapid development timeline of Galactic Racer underscores this point: Fuse launched in January 2023, and within three and a half years they built a studio, assembled a team, and delivered a UE5‑powered game despite initially lacking deep engine expertise.
A notable aspect of Fuse’s culture is its embrace of younger talent. Several of the developers, including one producer with no prior game‑industry experience, are fresh graduates. Webster praises their agility and fresh perspectives, noting that the studio has achieved more success with these newcomers than with some senior hires.
He argues that nurturing junior staff not only fuels innovation but also creates a more dynamic workplace, and he hopes to formalize an internship program once the studio reaches a revenue‑generating stage. Reflecting on the era when abundant funding allowed successful game teams to spin off their own studios, Webster cautions that money alone does not guarantee success. He dismisses the industry’s lingering obsession with the “single creative visionary” as nonsense, insisting that games are inherently collaborative endeavors.
Looking ahead, Fuse Games remains open‑ended about its next steps. The launch of Galactic Racer is just the beginning, and while the studio has ideas for future projects, Webster emphasizes the need for flexibility and adaptability in an independent setting. As he puts it, "Good games will find a way, and we’re hoping ours does too."