Less than one month after it’s release, Wildlight Entertainment, the developer behind Highguard, the free-to-play live-service title that instantly became one of gaming’s biggest stories following its reveal and since its launch, has initiated layoffs, the result of a game that failed to stick with players.
One of those impacted developers, Josh Sobel, a tech artist and rigger, took to social media to share a lengthy article on shipping their first game and the situation that the developers of Highguard found themselves in following that fateful reveal at last year’s edition of The Game Awards.
The piece is a sobering look at the realities of modern game development and the role that “gamer culture” can play in ensuring whether things sink or swim.
To start, Sobel noted that internal feedback was positive, and that the feedback that was negative was constructive. The team was seemingly extremely confident in their release, with Sobel writing, “many of us were hoping this could finally be the thing that broke the millennial financial curse.”
However, the trailer was released, and “it was all downhill from there.”
Highguard Failed Because It Tried To Deliver An Experience That Already Exists
Wildlight Entertainment has announced it has laid off the majority of developers behind Highguard.
Specifically, Sobel pointed to false reports that Wildlight had paid for its ad placement and things only spiraled from there.
“We were turned into a joke from minute one, largely due to false assumptions about a million-dollar ad placement, which even prominent journalists soon began to state as fact,” Sobel wrote. “Within minutes, it was decided: this game was dead on arrival, and creators now had free ragebait content for a month.”
Gamers Have A Lot More Power Than They Realize
Sobel noted the “Concord 2” comparisons and the fact that the game had thousands of negative reviews at launch, many of them coming from players with minimal playtime recorded. Those elements helped contribute to the game’s eventual failure.
It’s not the entire reason, but it played a role, Sobel wrote.
“In discussions online about Highguard, Concord, 2XKO, and such, it is often pointed out by gamers that devs like to blame gamers for their failures, and that that’s silly. As if gamers have no power. But they do. A lot of it. I’m not saying our failure is purely the fault of gamer culture and that the game would have thrived without the negative discourse, but it absolutely played a role. All products are at the whims of the consumers, and the consumers put absurd amounts of effort into slandering Highguard. And it worked.”
The developer argues that the game and its developers deserved better than the fate they received, one that was not being manifested by observers.
“Even if Highguard had a rocky launch, our independent, self-published, dev-led studio full of passionate people just trying to make a fun game, with zero AI, and zero corporate oversight…deserved better than this,” Sobel added. “We deserved the bare minimum of not having our downfall be gleefully manifested.”
In the end, Sobel doesn’t regret a second of the experience, and has hopes that whatever developers remain with the game can help it stay the course alongside the fans and creators who’ve supported it.
“I wish the best of luck to the few who remain at Wildlight, and hope Highguard can stay the course,” Sobel closed out. “I still believe in it, and so do the fans we reached, who continue to champion it on the subreddit, Discord, Twitch, and social media. And even though this adventure has come to an abrupt and emotionally challenging close, I don’t regret one second of it.”
- Released
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January 26, 2026
- Developer(s)
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Wildlight Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
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Wildlight Entertainment
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
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Full
