Despite a strong start, interest in the Overwatch-esque FPS game waned as layoffs impacted development studio Wildlight
First unveiled as the final announcement of the 2025 Game Awards,"Highguard" was positioned to be a competitor to the likes of"Overwatch" and"Valorant," and it had the pedigree to match. Development studio Wildlight was comprised of genre veterans who worked on legendary shooters like"Titanfall" and"Apex Legends," and The Game Awards was just about the biggest launchpad any game can possibly have to make a strong first impression for a studio's debut game, especially in a post-E3 landscape.
Alas,"Highguard" didn't have sufficient traction. While some were excited over the TGA announcement, others were underwhelmed or apathetic. Then, when the game launched on January 26, it had an early peak of 97,000 players on Steam before quickly diminishing to just 1,600 by mid-February, though this metric doesn't include console players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.Red Octane Games Unveils ‘Rock Band’/’Guitar Hero’ Successor, ‘Stage Tour’ It's not uncommon for a multiplayer game like"Highguard" to launch with strong numbers before tapering off. In today's age of"games as a service," it falls on consistent content drops to bring lapsed players coming back over the course of months and years. Perhaps that could have happened here, had investor Tencent, according to, not withdrawn its funding for the game shortly after launch. As a result, studio Wildlight had no choice but to make major layoffs across the"Highguard" team, leaving little more than a skeleton crew to keep the team-based multiplayer shooter afloat. This sequence of events ultimately led to today's decision by the leadership at Wildlight to permanently close"Highguard" on March 12, little more than a week away from this writing. The announcement was made via social media. On March 12,"Highguard" will go offline and become completely unplayable forever across all platforms. The salt in the wound comes from the fact that Wildlight announced a new update for the game in the exact same post as the announcement of its imminent closure. The update adds a new weapon, balancing changes, a new progression system, and even skill trees. All of these new features will only be available to players for a week or so before they're lost forever, likeThe tragedy of"Highguard" is, sadly, nothing new for the gaming industry as of late, which is still reeling from the cancellation of"Concord," the 2024 hero shooter that was shut down after just two weeks on the market despite years of development and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in investment. There's also the recent shuttering of studio Bluepoint, which was embroiled with Sony's pursuit of"Fortnite" fortunes by working on a multiplayer"games as service" title based on"God of War" instead of their usual work on cutting-edge remasters of existing games. Their"God of War" title was cancelled and the studio was subsequently shuttered. Likewise, remember when Naughty Dog was working on a multiplayer mode for"The Last of Us Part II" that got turned into its own separate multiplayer experience? Yeah, that got cancelled, too. While there are some success stories in the post-"Fortnite" GAAS space , the failures have all been high-profile bombs."Marvel's Avengers,""Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League,""Anthem,""Foamstars," and"Multiverses" are among the most notable live-service disasters in recent memory, and now"Highguard" joins their ranks of ambitious multiplayer games that simply didn't work out.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
PlayStation Plus Quietly Drops Free Download For 2025's Most Controversial GamePaul Farrelly is a Contributing Writer for Screen Rant’s Gaming section and the founder of GeekGasm.org, a site dedicated to celebrating all things gaming, from triple A blockbusters to weird and wonderful indie hits.
Read more »
Xbox Game Pass Subscribers Praise Underrated 2025 Gem: 'Good Pure Fun'The Xbox Game Pass Logos With Xbox’s Green Color Scheme In The Background
Read more »
Clemson Pitcher Officially Cleared for Return After Missing All of 2025 SeasonA redshirt freshman pitcher has been cleared after missing all of the 2025 season and could return this week, adding depth to Clemson’s dominant staff.
Read more »
Full Game Preview and Score Prediction for Virginia Tech vs. Boston CollegeThe Hokies have their final home game of the 2025-26 regular season today.
Read more »
NOAA satellites helped rescue 300 people in 2025From an injured skier in the Rockies to a disabled catamaran in the Atlantic Ocean, NOAA’s satellites were pivotal in helping rescue 300 people from life-threatening situations in the U.S. and its surrounding waters in 2025.
Read more »
What to do if you are denied FEMA assistance for October 2025 stormsApplicants who have received denial letters by mail or email have 60 days to appeal the decision. In cases where documents are missing, applicants can either upload them to their FEMA application or include them with appeal letters.
Read more »