Highguard Dev Reflects On The Layoffs After Surviving The Cuts

Highguard hasn’t even been out a month yet, but the raid shooter has had an epic fall since that time. Earlier this week, a number of developers behind the game were hit by layoffs as the game’s developer Wildlight left only a few with their jobs. Now, one of the remaining developers at Wildlight has shared his thoughts on what happened.

Jason McCord–the creative director of Highguard–confirmed on social media that he is still a part of the company. But he added that “yesterday was a kick to the head like nothing you can imagine. I am not affected by the layoffs, besides emotional damage.”

McCord went on to offer contacts “for some amazing devs” if any other teams want to hire Wildlight’s former employees.

Lead tech artist Josh Sobel was one of the team members who was let go, and he eulogized Highguard following his dismissal. “People who played the game, including us, had a blast,” wrote Sobel. “And since we were an independent, self-published studio built with royalties in mind, many of us were hoping this could finally be the thing that broke the millennial financial curse.”

Wildlight studio head Chad Grenier said “it doesn’t matter” whether the game gets “a thousand people or a hundred million people” shortly before the layoffs began. The game launched in late January with nearly 100,000 peak concurrent players on Steam. However, those sky-high numbers significantly dropped shortly thereafter.

Highguard already had a content calendar for 2026, but it’s unclear if the remaining developers will be able to deliver on those promises.