(Image credit: Secret Mode) Jump to: Share this article 0 Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Lucasfilm Games is hard at work coordinating with various publishers and developers to craft all sorts of new games set in the galaxy far, far away, but Star Wars: Galactic Racer’s announcement caught everyone off guard in the best possible way. There’s no Force to rely on here, only quick reflexes.
It’s a new era inside and outside the Star Wars universe, which means this spiritual successor of sorts to the previous Racer games — which were all about podracing — needed new tricks and substantial features that could set it apart from the competition. Thankfully, it seems that Fuse Games (a studio started by Burnout veterans) perfectly knew how to shake things up while retaining the speed, danger, and raw excitement of the older Star Wars racing titles. Now this is podracing!
As we march into a new era for Star Wars games defined by more genre-specific pitches and a more varied pool of creative talent, it can be a bit hard to keep track of all the games currently in development, so don’t forget to regularly take a look at our list of every upcoming Star Wars game announced and in the works.
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When is Star Wars: Galactic Racer coming out?
Star Wars: Galactic Racer is set to launch on October 6, 2026.
How do we know this? Because some poor soul accidentally uploaded a pre-order infographic to the Steam page. Whoopsie daisy. Not long after that snafu, Secret Mode and Fuse Games confirmed the release date with an official press release.
With a late 2025 reveal during the last Game Awards ceremony, Lucasfilm Games, publisher Secret Mode, and developer Fuse Games had quickly confirmed the plan is to launch Star Wars: Galactic Racer before 2026 ends, so this all tracks with expectations too.
What platforms is Star Wars: Galactic Racer launching on?
Star Wars: Galactic Racer is set to launch on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Windows) via Steam and the Epic Games Store.
As we approach the tail-end of this generation of consoles, big-budget game projects like this one have left last-gen machines behind. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, the team behind Star Wars: Galactic Racer aims to deliver cutting-edge visuals at high speeds, and while we wouldn’t rule out a Nintendo Switch 2 port at a later date, nothing has been promised on that front yet.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer trailers
Thankfully, there wasn’t an extremely long wait between Star Wars: Galactic Racer’s big reveal trailer and a second one featuring a closer look at the gameplay and more of its racers, including a couple of podracing legends.
We also got the release date trailer on April 30, showing off some more gameplay and all the exclusive racers and skins that come with the deluxe edition.
Watch all the trailers released so far below:
Star Wars: Galactic Racer™ - Official Reveal Trailer - YouTube
Watch On Star Wars: Galactic Racer™ - Official Gameplay Trailer - YouTube 
Watch On Star Wars: Galactic Racer™ | Official Release Date Reveal | Pre-Order Announcement - YouTube 
Watch On What type of racing game is Star Wars: Galactic Racer?
Star Wars: Galactic Racer is a highly competitive but casual-friendly arcade racer in the style of the two previous Star Wars podracing games released over 20 years ago: Episode I – Racer (1999) and Racer Revenge (2002). The key difference is that more vehicle classes — and not just podracers — are allowed in this new era of galaxy-wide racing: land speeders, the smaller speeder bikes, and even the new skim speeders all compete against the podracers from the olden days.
Players are introduced to the Galactic League — “an unsanctioned racing circuit born in the lawless Outer Rim” — through a single-player campaign with a traditional narrative that’s a main part of the package. We can also look forward to online, player-versus-player multiplayer modes that support cross-platform play across consoles and PC for up to 12 players. Ride customization is confirmed, too, but we haven’t seen the system in action yet.
Though veteran gamers will think of Burnout (developer Fuse Games was founded by Criterion Games veterans after all) almost instantly, Galactic Racer seems to be using lots of ideas from Evolution Studios’ MotorStorm series. That is, there’s a focus on the unpredictable racing and carnage that comes from the mix of different vehicle classes and off-road racing versus well-defined circuits. Of course, “takedowns” of sorts are part of the moment-to-moment mechanics, meaning that you can just take out foes by force as you try to conquer the top of the leaderboards.
When and where does Star Wars: Galactic Racer take place?
Star Wars: Galactic Racer is set in the New Republic era, right after the fall of the Empire, who had outlawed podracing and other dangerous vehicular competitions led and organized by criminal syndicates and Outer Rim governments.
With the Empire finished and the New Republic struggling to maintain order across so many inhabited star systems, “gambling, entertainment, and glory” fuel the fires of an underworld on the rise. While other Star Wars stories (such as The Mandalorian) are focused on the remaining threats to the galaxy and difficult politics, Galactic Racer is all about the lawless frontier where the people demand the return of high-speed racing.
So far, five planets have been shown in the trailers and promotional materials: Jakku, Tatooine, Sentinel One, Lantaana, and Ando Prime. While Star Wars fans are familiar with the first two, the toxic volcanic planet Sentinel One and the lush Lantaana were created specifically for this game. Ando Prime, meanwhile, is a returning snow world from the original Episode I – Racer.
Who are the new and returning characters in Star Wars: Galactic Racer?
Star Wars: Galactic Racer follows “lone racer” Shade as he takes on the villainous Kestar Bool, who’s currently dominating the Galactic League, “an unsanctioned racing league” created and organized by Darius Pax. When Pax fears he’s about to lose control of his creation, he convinces Shade – who has an unknown “personal grudge against the Bool family” – to take down Kestar.
The branching-path campaign includes a colorful roster of supporting characters, with the mechanic Hibi helping Shade out with new upgrades and tools. We also know the troublesome Sebulba and even fan-favorite (but unlucky) Ben Quadinaros are making triumphant returns, though it remains to be seen if they play major roles in the story or are simply part of the playable roster outside the story campaign.
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Fran RuizFran Ruiz is our resident Star Wars guy. His hunger for movies and TV series is only matched by his love for video games. He got a BA of English Studies, focusing on English Literature, from the University of Malaga, in Spain, as well as a Master's Degree in English Studies, Multilingual and Intercultural Communication. On top of writing features and other longform articles for Space.com since 2021, he is a frequent collaborator of VG247 and other gaming sites. He also serves as associate editor over at Star Wars News Net and its sister site, Movie News Net.
