Highguard's Downfall?! Wildlight Layoffs Leave Only a Skeleton Crew!

Highguard Reportedly Has Less Than 20 Devs Working on It Following Mass Layoffs at Wildlight

Highguard's Downfall?! Wildlight Layoffs Leave Onl...

Things aren't looking good for *Highguard*, the hero shooter that recently launched from Wildlight Entertainment. A new report paints a pretty grim picture: following mass layoffs, it appears fewer than 20 developers remain to try and salvage the project. That's a tough spot to be in, especially for a live service game that needs constant updates and attention.

The story, broken by Bloomberg, details the rise and fall of Wildlight. Apparently, the studio was founded back in 2021 by a group of Respawn Entertainment alums, folks who clearly knew their way around a shooter. The initial idea? Something a bit different, a survival-focused shooter. But that concept reportedly didn't take off, and the team pivoted to *Highguard*, aiming to capture some of that *Apex Legends* magic.

Early testing offered glimmers of hope. Testers apparently enjoyed the game, especially when playing with voice chat. But, and this is a big but, they also found it overly complex and significantly less fun without that voice comms element. That's a red flag in a genre that relies heavily on accessibility and pick-up-and-play appeal. *Highguard* did launch with decent concurrent player numbers on Steam, a promising start, but retention proved to be a major hurdle.

And that, unfortunately, is where the wheels started to come off. Disappointing microtransaction revenue, coupled with lackluster reviews, seems to have sealed the game's fate, at least in the eyes of its financial backer. Despite the development team's belief that they could turn things around with more resources, Tencent, the financial powerhouse behind Wildlight, reportedly pulled the plug abruptly. Boom. Layoffs hit hard, gutting the 100-person team and leaving a skeleton crew scrambling to keep the lights on. It's a scenario we've seen play out before in this industry, and it's never pretty.

Now, this remaining small group of developers is facing a monumental task: rescuing *Highguard* from what looks like a terminal decline. They recently reassured players that a new patch is in the works, especially after a website issue sparked fears that the whole thing was about to be shut down immediately. That's good news, I suppose, but the scale of the challenge facing them is immense. Can they pull off a miracle? Only time will tell, but the odds are definitely stacked against them. As Rebekah Valentine at IGN notes, if you have a story tip, reach out to rvalentine@ign.com. This is a developing story and worth keeping an eye on.