Less than a week after Highguard‘s servers shut off for good, the ill-fated hero shooter appears to be issuing refunds, at least on PlayStation 5. The game went offline in record time and Sony is seemingly having Wildlight Entertainment pay back players for any money they invested into it as one last parting gift before the studio shuts its doors for good.
Players who spent money on the free-to-play shooter’s battle pass or skin shop were greeted on March 17 with emails from Sony notifying them that money they’d spent on the game had been returned to their accounts. It’s unclear if everyone who ever spent money on Highguard is getting it back or only those players who invested after Wildlight Entertainment announced layoffs just a few weeks after launch. It’s possible the refunds were mandated by Sony. It’s not clear if refunds are also going out on Steam or Xbox.
Given the game is free to download, refunding everyone would mean the shooter from former Apex Legends and Titanfall developers would, all told, end up earning nothing over its barely two month lifespan.
“I honestly didn’t care for a refund,” wrote one player on the subreddit. “I enjoyed the game and enjoyed supporting it but if you were looking for a refund they are sending them out.” I’m in a similar boat. I played over 30 hours of the game and enjoyed it plenty with my friends. I decided to buy $20 worth of skins as a “thank you” to the developers even after it was clear the game was doomed.
One thing that’s confused people about Highguard‘s rapid flameout is why the studio didn’t have more runway to try and make the game work. Having played a fair bit, it’s easy to feel like the game was rushed out and would have benefited from beta test feedback or additional content at launch. According to Bloomberg, some developers at the studio believed funding from Tencent was clawed back at the last minute when it became clear the game was underperforming at launch.
It seems unlikely that Wildlight Entertainment will continue either at this point. The LinkedIn page was recently removed and the website is currently offline.