Highguard developer Wildight Entertainment announces layoffs less than a month after release

A dismissal round has taken place at Highguard developer Wildlight Entertainment. This news comes less than a month after Highguards controversial launch, leaving the future of the PvP raid shooter in a potentially dangerous place.

Ever since it was revealed, Highguard has been at the center of the controversy. The game was revealed as “the last thing” at The Game Awards 2025, to the dismay of gamers who had been disappointed by live service titles. Despite the initial negative reception, Highguard was released on January 26 and peaked at 97,249 players on Steam, according to SteamDB data. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to many players' expectations, with player numbers dropping drastically after its initial launch. While the developer had big plans after the game's launch, the release of that content is now in question.

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Highguard developer announces layoffs less than a month after 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 announcement, 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 read: “Today we made the incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members while retaining a core group of developers to continue to innovate and support the game.” The developer went on to say that it was “proud” of its team and the game they created. In addition, they thanked the players who had played Highguard and plans to support it going forward.

While this statement from Wildlight Entertainment reveals that the game will continue to be supported for the time being, it remains to be seen what that will look like. The developer used the term “innovative”, which could indicate that more new content may still be on the way. But what impact will the layoffs have on the 2026 roadmap Highguard remains unknown. It's worth noting that Graner suggested that a lot of the content he was working on might never see the light of day. “This one really stings because there was a lot of unreleased content that I was really looking forward to that I and others designed for Highguard”, they said when they wrote on LinkedIn.

For context, Wildlight Entertainment had mapped out the next year regarding new content. The schedule was ambitious, with a total of seven episodes scheduled for release in December. This episodic content was expected to include new bases, wardens, weapons, modes and more to keep Highguardexciting game. However, based on Graner's comments, some of this may never make it into the game after the disappointing launch.

Despite the negative reception Highguard received at launch, the game has struck a chord with some players. This is undoubtedly sad news for those who were hoping for the game to gain popularity on platforms like Steam. As of this writing, the game only has 2,755 players on Valve's platform. While the game isn't shutting down yet, it remains to be seen if it can find a way to bring back players with a reduced team.