Blame Electronic Arts and the Star Wars Battlefront 2 launch fiasco, but whenever you see a new title in the franchise, there’s always that fear of additional monetization. When it comes to Star Wars: Galactic Racer, Fuse Games – comprised of former Criterion developers – is at least avoiding the season pass model for post-launch content.
“No. This is a premium release, right?” said studio founder and CEO Matt Webster to IGN in a recent interview. “We have our campaign, and we have arcade mode, and we have multiplayer, and it’s a self-contained thing.”
Of course, this is still Star Wars – a franchise that’s constantly growing with new media and additions. So, Webster says the team can recognize “that the landscape of Star Wars evolves and changes over time, and so do games as they go. So we see an opportunity for us to tap into more Star Wars or new Star Wars over time, but in terms of us outlining what we think post-launch is going to look like, that’s not something that we see. The only reason I say a blind no to it is, in my head, season pass is connected to free-to-play games, and that’s not what we are making.”
Creative director Kieran Crimmins agrees. “Our mindset right now is a premium release, to try and get an amazing experience out of the box. Obviously, we wouldn’t close the door to doing something later, but that isn’t what we are really thinking about right now. We just want it to be the very best game it can be, and we want it to be complete when it comes out.”
Interestingly, the sentiment of providing a premium release echoes Pearl Abyss with Crimson Desert. Despite offering pre-order bonuses, marketing and strategic planning expert Will Powers affirmed that there’s no cash shop for cosmetics or such because, “This is a premium experience.”
As for Star Wars: Galactic Racer, it’s coming to Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC this year. Focusing on the mysterious racer Shade, the story follows their journey through the Galactic League in an attempt to unseat Kestar Bool. Players can select multiple vehicle types and build them out to their liking with tracks spanning planets such as Ando Prime, Jakku and Sentinel One.
It’s not an open world, however – Fuse Games is keen to deliver something “high consequence, high action, high replayability” to create “player stories that you wouldn’t have seen in other games.” With no season pass, it should be interesting to see how Fuse Games pursues additional content.
