Highguard Is Officially Shutting Down Today

After launching for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC just 45 days ago, support for Highguard will officially come to an end today, as Wildlight Entertainment prepares to shut the game’s servers down for good on March 12. At the time of writing this article, Highguard‘s servers still appear to be operational, but the end is most certainly near, as the studio’s publisher has already delisted the shooter from numerous digital storefronts such as Steam and the PlayStation Store.

Highguard now joins the likes of Concord, The Day Before, and Radical Heights as one of the few titles to shut down just weeks after its release. Even with the coveted final spot on the Game Awards, Highguard failed to retain the interest of gamers around the world, quickly falling from nearly 100,000 concurrent Steam players at launch to just 600 active users one month later. The shooter’s developer, Wildlight Entertainment, says that Highguard attracted 2 million players across all of its supported platforms upon its release, but many of them seemingly abandoned the title quicker than anticipated. Now, less than two months later, Highguard will be shut down forever.

Highguard Servers Will Be Shut Down Today

Despite having veteran video game developers working on the project, many of whom had previously worked on some of the most popular first-person shooters on the market, including the likes of Apex Legends, Titanfall, and Call of Duty, Highguard has been a monumental disaster for Wildlight Entertainment. Earlier this month, the studio announced that the servers for Highguard would be shut down on March 12. As that day is now upon us, Wildlight appears to have removed the game from digital storefronts, such as Steam and the PlayStation Store. It’s unknown exactly what time the developers will pull the plug on its servers today, but there still appear to be nearly 200 active players on PC right now, according to SteamDB.

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After Highguard lost the majority of its playerbase on Steam, it didn’t take long for speculation of a possible shutdown to make the rounds online. Just weeks after its release, Highguard was struggling to peak at more than 1,000 concurrent players on the platform each day, and it’s assumed its performance on consoles couldn’t have been much better. Things then went from bad to worse after Wildlight Entertainment announced layoffs at the studio, with only a handful of employees remaining. Despite this, the developer insisted that those left would continue to work on and support Highguard with new updates and content. The game’s director, Chad Grenier, even insisted that its player count “doesn’t matter.”

Further speculation then arose after Highguard‘s website mysteriously went offline, leading many to believe that this was simply the first step in an inevitable shutdown. However, a developer quickly dismissed those rumors, stating that the Highguard website was being transferred and simplified and that it wasn’t a priority for the studio right now, given the recent layoffs and the title’s overall reputation. The dev then confirmed that work was underway on new content and continued support for the game, seemingly easing concerns for those who were playing and enjoying Highguard.

While the game will be shut down forever today, Wildlight did release a massive new content update for Highguard on March 4. The patch added a brand-new skill tree, allowing players to build out their upgrades in four distinct playstyles. It also saw the addition of a new Warden, a new weapon, and account progression. Although many found the update’s release to be rather pointless, given that there was only one week left of its life, it’s clear that the developers had intended to continue supporting Highguard for years to come and likely already had this update planned for release before its failure.