The free-to-play shooter Highguard has officially shut down, and now players on PS5 are reporting that refunds are coming in for certain items they may have paid for and can now no longer use.
People are saying on Reddit (via Kotaku) that Sony is now giving refunds for microtransaction purchases. Some said they bought microtransactions specifically because they enjoyed Highguard and wanted to support the developers. “I honestly didn’t care for a refund,” one person said.
Some have theorized that Wildlight offering refunds for Highguard players on PS5 might be tied to some kind of mandated policy from Sony. It’s unclear if refunds will go out on Xbox or PC.
GameSpot asked Wildlight about the refund situation back when Highguard’s shutdown was announced. The developer never responded, however.
Beyond the refund news, Wildlight’s studio page on LinkedIn has vanished, while the developer’s website has gone offline completely. The Highguard game-specific website is gone as well. In February, Wildlight laid off the majority of its staff, with only a skeleton crew remaining to release the game’s final update.
There have been many theories about why Highguard did not succeed. One former developer said the negative online discourse about Highguard played a role, but was not the main reason. Another Highguard developer said the game struggled because it was too “sweaty” and wasn’t appealing enough to casual players. A report said “hubris” also played a part.
It has come to light that Tencent was one of the companies that funded Wildlight and Highguard, and that the Chinese internet giant pulled funding after the game’s launch.
After Highguard’s shutdown was announced, Wildlight’s Chad Grenier said the game was simply not bringing in enough revenue to pay for ongoing development. “Not enough revenue to keep anyone employed to work on it, unfortunately,” he said.
All told, Highguard was online and playable for 45 days.