Just two months ago at The Game Awards, host Geoff Keighley gave a show-closing preview to the raid shooter Highguard. But after struggling out of the gate, Highguard developer Wildlight was hit by massive layoffs, and some are pointing the finger at Keighley for creating high expectations that the dev team couldn’t live up to. However, at least one prominent figure in the industry doesn’t believe Keighley should shoulder the blame for any of this mess.
“The Highguard layoffs, like many others, are a sad reminder of the economic instability of an industry that asks the world, but promises little,” wrote Baldur’s Gate 3 director of publishing, Michael Douse on X. “That said, blaming one man for showing a trailer on his telly show is a sophomoric take that shows little understanding of industry!”
The Highguard layoffs, like many others, are a sad reminder of the economic instability of an industry that asks the world but promises little. That said, blaming one man for showing a trailer on his telly show is a sophomoric take that shows little understanding of industry!
— Very AFK (@Cromwelp) February 12, 2026
“If anything, [Keighley] gave Highguard the best chance it could have,” added Critical Hits founder Eric Arraché. “The problem was that the game wasn’t that good (map too big for 3v3) and I believe it had some server problems on PC on day one. Aside from that, companies seem to be pulling out much faster since the Concord fiasco.”
Josh Sobel, a lead tech artist who was laid off from Wildlight this week, noted that “it was all downhill from there,” after The Game Awards reveal. According to Sobel, that prime spot led to a backlash against the game. Keighley was even accused of owning a stake in the game, which he laughed off and denied. Most of the gaming companies paid upwards of $1 million for an ad during The Game Awards, and Keighley reportedly gave Wildlight its spot for free.
Keighley subsequently acknowledged the layoffs, and called it “An unfortunate, brutal and sad outcome for a game I enjoyed in early play tests.”
A large part of the Wildlight Entertainment team that worked on @PlayHighguard has been laid off, just 16 days after release.
An unfortunate, brutal and sad outcome for a game I enjoyed in early play tests. pic.twitter.com/6KFLANVg2C— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) February 12, 2026
It’s currently unknown if the remaining developers at Wildlight will be able to deliver everything promised in Highguard’s content calendar for 2026.