Devs Defend Highguard Amid Negative Reviews

Devs from multiple studios are defending Highguard as negative responses to the game continue to pile up. First announced at The Game Awards 2025, the hero shooter has faced some remarkable ups and downs in its short life up to this point. Things may look a little shaky for Highguard at the moment, but it has at least spurred devs across the industry to tell players to give its studio a second chance.

It has been a wild week for Wildlight Entertainment’s debut title, and it’s only been out for a handful of days. Within its first few hours, Highguard drew over 97,000 concurrent players, yet its Steam reviews fell to “Overwhelmingly Negative” just as quickly. Naturally, this plummet drew unwelcome comparisons to another hero shooter in Sony’s ill-fated Concord, and while there’s plenty of reason to believe Highguard won’t suffer the same fate, the damage was done in many gamers’ eyes. Now, though, devs who didn’t even work on the game are coming to its defense.

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Devs Say “It’s Easy to Celebrate Failure” but Highguard Deserves Better

As news of Highguard’s player count dropping by 80% made waves across social media, devs from other studios criticized how much people have focused on the negative. Remedy Entertainment Communications Director Thomas Puha questioned if media outlets were celebrating Highguard‘s poor performance and “just putting out negative headlines for the sake of it.” Baldur’s Gate 3 Publishing Director Michael Douse quote tweeted this statement and added that “game development runs on optimism,” not strictly economics. According to Douse, the celebration of failure makes it hard for studios to really understand what players want and can stand in the way of creativity. Perhaps more importantly, cynicism can drain devs’ enthusiasm, which isn’t good for the industry or games themselves.

Highguard key art fix — highguard key art resized

Puha and Douse are far from the first to point out how negativity tends to spread faster than its inverse, and Highguard is far from the first game to face such backlash. However, it is an interesting case and likely drew outside devs’ attention because there’s a strong argument that the extent of its criticism may outweigh its real faults. While most players agree there is certainly room for improvement, some also say that Highguard does several things better than other hero shooters, yet its failures have received far more attention. Douse offered some optimism, saying devs can still find “hyper-engaged audiences and low-cost opportunities,” which could help studios like Wildlight recover, but the wave of cynicism is still notable.

Douse and Puha’s comments echo sentiments expressed by Larian CEO Swen Vincke. Around the same time as these Highguard conversations unfolded, the Baldur’s Gate 3 boss said critics should have “Metacritic-style” review scores before deleting that statement. While he may have walked back that more provocative part of his argument, it came as part of a larger thread about game criticism becoming too harsh for the sake of getting attention. There seems to be a good bit of support behind these views across social media, but there are plenty of other voices saying that fans and critics shouldn’t accept mediocrity or ignore real problems with games just to avoid stepping on toes.

Highguard launches to mostly negative reviews

For now, the future of Highguard is uncertain, but Wildlight Entertainment has been responsive amid the feedback. The game is already receiving updates, and Wildlight has unveiled an ambitious Highguard content roadmap for the coming year. There’s a chance this effort and attention to fan comments could help the game and the studio behind it bounce back. Pleas from other devs to extend Wildlight a bit of grace may convince some players to give it another chance down the road, too. If and how the larger conversation about criticism and negativity may affect anything remains equally unclear, but if nothing else, Highguard has certainly got people talking.