Highguard will officially go offline on March 12, developer Wildlight has announced. This was the expected result, given that player numbers had fallen dramatically and the game was being supported only by a skeleton crew following mass layoffs at the company.
More than 2 million people played Highguard, the studio said, and “many believed in what we were building.” Wildlight said it is “deeply grateful” for the fans, but admitted, “We have not been able to build a sustainable player base to support the game long term.”
Highguard will remain playable until March 12, and Wildlight said it hopes people will come back “one more time to show your support and get those final great matches in while we still can.”
Highguard will get one final update, which will add a new Warden, a new weapon, account level progression, and skill trees. The patch is expected to arrive March 3 or March 4, and the full patch notes will be shared later.
“From all of us at Wildlight, thank you for playing, for supporting us, and for being part of Highguard’s story,” the developer said.
Highguard featured numerous microtransactions for cosmetics, but it’s unclear if Wildlight will offer any refunds. GameSpot has contacted Wildlight in an attempt to get more information.
Wildlight had a full year’s worth of DLC planned for Highguard, but that content is seemingly canceled now as well. GameSpot’s Highguard review scored the game a 6/10, with reviewer Stella Chung saying the game was “not ready for primetime.”
Highguard was announced during The Game Awards in December 2025 and, after Wildlight went silent for a month, the game was released on January 26, 2026. Highguard reached nearly 100,000 peak concurrent players at launch, but the momentum did not last. Today, the game reached fewer than 500 concurrent players.
Much of the discussion surrounding Highguard came from its appearance at The Game Awards. It was the final reveal of the night during the showcase, and many people questioned why host. We never got any answers, but it later came to light that The Game Awards host and organizer Geoff Keighley played an early version of the game and loved it so much that he gave Wildlight the spot for free. As it turns out, Wildlight wanted to shadowdrop the game, but agreed to Keighley’s offer instead.
As for why Highguard struggled to find an audience, there are no doubt countless reasons for this. One developer said the game was too sweaty. Others said the team was overconfident.
Highguard is not the first game to launch and then shut down relatively quickly. Check out the gallery below to see some other examples, inlduing Concord.
