After failing to find an audience, troubled hero shooter Highguard will permanently shut down later this month.
Despite achieving some strong launch numbers in January, Highguard’s future prospects have soured dramatically over the past month.
The free-to-play hero shooter hit a concurrent peak of almost 100,000 players on Steam when it debuted on January 26, but since then it has dropped to under 1,000 – despite the developer’s best efforts to maintain interest through new 5v5 and Raid Rush modes.
The dwindling numbers led Wildlight Entertainment to lay off the majority of its staff last month, after Tencent, the studio’s financial backer, reportedly pulled funding. Now, less than two months after it launched, Wildlight is officially shutting up shop.
As announced by the studio on social media, Highguard will permanently shut down on March 12, 2026.
‘Since launch, more than two million players stepped into Highguard’s world,’ a statement from Wildlight reads. ‘You shared feedback, created content, and many believed in what we were building. For that, we are deeply grateful.
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.
‘Despite the passion and hard work of our team, we have not been able to build a sustainable player base to support the game long term. Servers will remain online until March 12. We hope you’ll jump in with us one more time to show your support and get those final great matches in while we still can.’
They added: ‘From all of us at Wildlight, thank you for playing, for supporting us, and for being part of Highguard’s story.’
Highguard has been steeped in negativity ever since it was announced at The Game Awards last year, where its position as the show’s climax led to blowback from viewers.
The game was originally going to be shadow-dropped, in a bid to emulate the success of the staff’s previous title Apex Legends, but they were convinced to do otherwise by host and organiser Geoff Keighley.
The game’s demise, while unfortunate, isn’t exactly surprising – we questioned its longevity after our hands-on session, despite enjoying our time with it – but Highguard’s downfall seems like a swirling mix of different factors.
The problems include the troubled announcement, the generic art style, the reported ‘hubris’ from management, and how competitive the gaming landscape is today when it comes to live service titles.
In light of the news, the game’s director, Chad Grenier, shared various player statistics in a thread on X. Interestingly, while Steam is the most easily tracked method of determining a game’s health, Highguard’s biggest player base was on PlayStation 5.
Meanwhile, in terms of countries, the US had ‘by far’ the ‘largest audience’ for Highguard, followed by Japan.
There are other statistics tied to the most played modes and characters (Scarlet rules the roost), but it’s an interesting backend insight you don’t often see from developers.
Despite its impending shutdown, the team released one final update for Highguard yesterday (March 3), which includes a new Warden, a new weapon, account level progression, and skill trees.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
