A round of layoffs has happened at Highguard developer Wildlight Entertainment. This news comes less than a month after Highguard’s contentious launch, leaving the future of the PvP raid shooter in a potentially perilous spot.
Ever since its reveal, Highguard has been at the center of controversy. The game was unveiled as the “one last thing” at The Game Awards 2025, to the dismay of gamers who had become disenchanted with live-service titles. Despite the negative reception around its reveal, Highguard was released on January 26. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to the expectations of many gamers, with its player count dropping drastically on Steam following its initial launch, which peaked at 97,249 players, according to SteamDB data. While the developer initially had big post-launch plans for the game, the release of that content is now in question.
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Highguard Developer Announces Layoffs Less Than a Month After the Game’s Release
On February 11, level designer Alex Graner revealed in a LinkedIn post that he had been let go by Wildlight Entertainment. In their message, they noted that “most of the team” had also been laid off. This news from Graner was officially confirmed in a tweet from Wildlight Entertainment shortly after. A statement from the company reads: “Today we made an incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members while keeping a core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game.” The developer went on to say it was “proud” of its team and the game they created. Additionally, they thanked the gamers who had played Highguard and plan to support it moving forward.
While this statement from Wildlight Entertainment reveals the game will continue to be supported for the time being, it remains to be seen what this will look like. The developer used the term “innovating,” which could suggest that more new content could still be on the way. However, the impact the layoffs will have on the 2026 roadmap for Highguard remains unknown. It is worth noting that Graner suggested that lots of content he worked on might never see the light of day. “This one really stings as there was a lot of unreleased content I was really looking forward to that I and others designed for Highguard,” they said when writing on LinkedIn.
For context, Wildlight Entertainment had the next year mapped out regarding new content. The schedule was ambitious, with a total of seven episodes planned for release by December. This episodic content was expected to include new bases, wardens, weapons, modes, and more to keep Highguard‘s gameplay exciting. However, based on Graner’s comments, some of this might never make it into the game following the disappointing launch.
Despite the negative reception Highguard received at launch, the game has struck a chord with some players. Doubtlessly, this is sad news for those who hoped for the game to gain popularity on platforms like Steam. As of this writing, the game has only 2,755 players on Valve’s platform. While the game is not shutting down yet, it remains to be seen if it can find a way to draw back players with a reduced team.
- Released
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January 26, 2026
- Developer(s)
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Wildlight Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
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Wildlight Entertainment
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
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Full
