Highguard Developer Addresses Website Outage

A developer at Wildlight Entertainment has spoken out after a sudden website outage sparked speculation that Highguard, the controversial PvP raid shooter, was about to be taken offline. Despite a dwindling player count, mixed reviews, and a mass exodus of Wildlight employees, it looks like Highguard isn’t going anywhere just yet, as a developer at the studio says the game’s website is merely being transferred and simplified.

Highguard made its first appearance during last year’s Game Awards ceremony, surprising viewers when it took the coveted ‘one last thing’ spot. With the likes of Star Wars: Fate of The Old Republic, a new Divinity game, and Tomb Raider: Catalyst all being revealed during the show, many were surprised that a free-to-play hero shooter was the final showing of the event. But, as it turns out, Wildlight reportedly didn’t even have to pay for Highguard‘s trailer at the Game Awards, because host Geoff Keighley just liked it that much. Unfortunately, the exposure hasn’t done the game any favors, as it’s been riddled with backlash ever since.

Things Highguard Does Better Than Other Hero Shooters

Highguard is the newest arrival on the hero shooter side, and there are a few things it manages to do right over other titles in the genre.

Highguard Dev Explains Website Outage

Taking the final spot at the Game Awards certainly got plenty of eyes on Highguard, which helped boost the shooter’s launch last month to nearly 100,000 concurrent players on Steam. Sadly, those numbers quickly dwindled, with Highguard losing 80% of its player base in just a few days. This has led to massive speculation that the game is already gearing up to shut its servers down, which was further fueled when Highguard‘s official website went offline this week. However, a developer has now said it is merely because the website “needs to be transferred and simplified,” but said it is a low priority for the team as they are focused on delivering new updates and content.

With many labelling Highguard as the next Concord, it didn’t take long for rumors to swirl that a shutdown was imminent following the unexpected outage of Highguard‘s website this week. “I suspect an end-of-service announcement is imminent,” one user said in response to the game’s website going offline. Another said that “servers will be next.” But for fans of the game, it looks like Highguard isn’t going anywhere just yet, as its developers still seem to be hard at work on future updates.

Given that Wildlight Entertainment recently laid off much of the Highguard team, there’s no way to know how big future updates will be or how often they will be released. Less than one month after the shooter was released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, Wildlight Entertainment announced that it had made the difficult decision to part ways with a number of employees, but said it would be keeping a core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting Highguard. The studio didn’t address the low player count or mixed reviews in its statement, but did thank those who continue to be a part of the game’s community.

User reviews for Highguard are currently ‘mixed’ on Steam, which is an improvement from the ‘mostly negative’ score it received at launch. One of players’ biggest complaints was that the core 3v3 experience simply didn’t feel fast enough for the size of the maps. Wildlight quickly took this feedback on board and released a new, permanent 5v5 mode, but it doesn’t appear to have been enough to keep players coming back for more, as the shooter now averages between 1,000 and 2,000 peak users each day on Steam. How it is performing on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S is unknown.