Highguard's first update comes with a promise

Highguard has received its first ever update, which is now available for download on PC and consoles. The patch doesn't include any balancing changes, but it does come with a promise that suggests more comprehensive Highguard updates are on the horizon.

Highguard is a new hero shooter originally announced at The Game Awards 2025. It is the debut title from Wildlight Entertainment, a 61-person studio consisting of Titanfall and Apex Legends veterans. The game is built around teams of three competing for shifting objectives in matches that culminate in a base raid. Players choose from a roster of heroes – or “Wardens” to use the game's jargon – and battle to control a powerful target called the Shieldbreaker, which is used to breach the opposing team's defenses and launch a final assault on their base. Highguard launched as a free-to-play title for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on January 26.

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First Highguard update introduces crash fixes

Less than a day after Highguards global release, the game received its first ever client-side update. No official patch notes were published by Wildlight, with the developer only stating that the revision addresses “various stability issues”, i.e. fixes some crashes. On consoles, the patch is marked as build 1.002.000. The PC update is around 18GB in size, effectively requiring players to reinstall the entire game.

Highguard Devs promise more updates coming soon

The first update announcement came along with a promise that the developer is working hard to deliver further improvements. “We continue to investigate issues and expect to have more patches available throughout the week,” Wildlight said in a prepared statement. Based on typical development cycles for live services, bug fixes are likely the only thing players can expect in the next few days, as more extensive changes such as balancing adjustments will seemingly require additional time to complete. The new client update came soon after Highguard garnered a lot of attention on Steam, peaking at over 97,200 concurrent players on Valve's showcase.

We continue to investigate issues and expect to have more patches this week.

Based on 24-hour activity data, Highguard ranked as the 16th most played game on Steam on January 27th. The hero shooter didn't appear in the US top 20 lists on the PlayStation or Xbox Stores, which offer relative rankings but don't reveal the number of players. On Steam, Highguard has a 31.12% positive review as of the early morning hours (ET) of January 27th, with Valve classifying the response as “Mostly Negative”. Reviewers have cited a range of issues, from technical issues with sound and Highguards aggressive anti-cheat system at the core level for broader concerns about structure and pace.

Some early adopters on Steam have described firefights as the most compelling and well-executed aspect of the game Highguardwhile claiming that such encounters are too rare. Instead, combat is interspersed with stretches of collecting chests and resources and waiting for Shieldbreaker to spawn. These periods of downtime have led some players to speculate that Highguard may have originally been intended as a different type of game before switching to its current 3v3 format. Some fans suggest that the experience could benefit from a more traditional deathmatch approach, without the layers of additional mechanics that dilute firefights. Others argue that simply increasing the team sizes could improve the pacing, noting that the maps feel too large for matches limited to two three-player teams.

The first Highguard content update is coming in February 2026

Unlike balancing changes, overhauling the core game loop to address activity distribution concerns would be a significantly larger undertaking for Wildlight Entertainment. There is currently no indication that the California-based developer is considering such an overhaul. The studio recently shared a 12-month roadmap for its free-to-play hero shooter, with the first major content update – dubbed “Episode 2” – scheduled to be released in two parts over the course of February and March 2026. Part 1 will introduce a new playable Warden, mount and map, along with a full-fledged ranked mode. Part 2, scheduled for March, will deliver a new raid tool and base type.