As far as triple-A-ish games go, Highguard might go down in history as one of the games that spent the least time in the spotlight, and even when it did, it was all for the wrong reasons.
The game was a complete secret until The Game Awards 2025. The CEO of game developer Wildlight Entertainment, Dusty Welch, would later reveal that their original goal was to shadowdrop the game in late January, much as Respawn's Apex Legends did back in 2019 (on which several members of the team had worked). However, when Geoff Keighley suddenly came to Wildlight with the offer to close out The Game Awards ceremony with a Highguard trailer, Welch felt it would have been foolish to refuse.
As they say, hindsight is 20/20, but there's no doubt that that unveiling has backfired majorly. Viewers wanted to see a big new single-player game as the show's closing announcement, not another hero shooter, and immediately criticized both Keighley and Highguard itself, setting the stage for negative sentiment that hit the game like a hammer.
Rather than delaying the game and perhaps trying to address some of the early complaints, Wildlight still launched Highguard as planned in late January. Unsurprisingly, the Steam page was quickly filled with negative reviews, just as Dusty Welch had admitted the trailer didn't showcase their game well.
Last week, it was reported that Wildlight had already been forced to lay off most of the team, following the game's terrible launch. A few days ago, one of the developers who was laid off criticized players for failing to give Highguard a chance.
Now, the game appears to be on its deathbed. The 24-hour concurrent player peak on Steam was just 1,507 players, and the official website has been down for several hours. Those few players who actually enjoy the game are worried its closure might be announced at any moment. Meanwhile, Stephen Totilo has revealed that Chinese giant Tencent, one of the biggest gaming publishers, was the secret investor behind the game.
What do you think of Highguard and its seemingly brief life? Did it deserve more or not? Let us know in the poll and comments.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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