Former Highguard Dev Explains Why The Shooter Failed

A former Wildlight Entertainment employee and senior level designer for Highguard has speculated that the shooter failed because it leaned too much into the competitive scene. Alex Garner, who previously worked on massive AAA shooters like Apex Legends and Battlefield 6, says Wildlight was attempting to build a new, ambitious game with Highguard, but the studio ended up going all-in on the dedicated 3v3 mode, which ultimately requires tons of communication between teammates and was likely why the game saw such a sudden and large drop in players.

Highguard was a part of last year’s massive Game Awards event, which also featured reveals for a new Divinity game, The Forest 3, Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, Tomb Raider: Catalyst, and many more. Despite the ceremony being filled with huge reveals, the coveted final spot on the night was taken by Highguard, with rumors suggesting that Wildlight didn’t even need to pay for the spot. Although unconfirmed, it was said that host Geoff Keighley loved the game so much during his early preview that he insisted on it appearing at the event, despite Wildlight’s plans to shadow drop the game earlier this year. The reveal, sadly, set Highguard up for failure, with thousands taking to social media to blast the shooter before it was even released.

Important Things Highguard Understates Or Doesn’t Tell You

Highguard’s gameplay loop is fairly straightforward, but the game features a few understated or unhighlighted mechanics and tricks.

Highguard Dev Says It Leaned Too Far Into the Competitive Scene

Wildlight had little to no marketing for Highguard in the weeks after the event, but all of the talk online continued, which then resulted in the shooter peaking at nearly 100,000 concurrent players on Steam at launch. Unfortunately, these numbers fell hard and fast, which promptly led to Wildlight laying off most of its staff. Now, in a new interview with Quad Damage Podcast (transcribed by PCGamesN), former senior level designer Alex Garner has given his thoughts on why Highguard failed, citing too much of a focus on the competitive scene as the core reason. “I can only speak to my side of it as a level designer, but when I joined [Wildlight], it was trying to figure out this new, ambitious game, and this team is always pushing the boundaries,” Garner said.

The developer goes on to explain how development “really leaned into the competitive side of it,” which he says was always one of his “biggest fears” as a player. According to Garner, Highguard‘s core mode was constantly evolving during development but the team eventually leaned “too far into the competitive scene” when Wildlight decided to full-in on the 3v3 aspect of the game.

“3v3 duos is always the sweatiest version of anything like battle royale, objective modes, wingman, you know it, you name it. It requires such a high intensity of communication with your team, and team play, that it doesn’t leave much room for casualness. I think that was the biggest thing that turned a lot of players off Highguard,” the former Wildlight dev explained.

As Garner mentions, 3v3 requires tons of communication and teamwork, which makes it a rather unenjoyable experience to play solo. This was one of players’ most common complaints about the shooter when it launched. But, to Wildlight’s credit, it did promptly add a new 5v5 mode to Highguard not long after the game’s release. Unfortunately, despite the studio’s best efforts to continue supporting the shooter, even after most of its developers were laid off, Highguard‘s numbers have continued to decline.

It’s only been a little over a month since the release of Highguard on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, but the game has already reached some brutal new lows, at least on Steam, anyway. While there’s no way to know how many are jumping in on consoles every day, Highguard now struggles to peak at more than 400 concurrent players each day, and its overall review score on the platform is “mixed” at the time of writing. While Wildlight promised to continue supporting Highguard following mass layoffs, with a core group of developers continuing to release new content updates regularly, it’s unclear how much longer the title can realistically be maintained with such a small playerbase.