Highguard is shutting down soon, and when the servers close on March 12, the game will have lived for just 45 days. Why did developer Wildlight have to close the game so soon and scrap the previously planned DLC?
According to Chad Grenier, the studio head at Wildlight and game director for Highguard who previously worked on Apex Legends and Titanfall, it came down to money. He said on social media, "Not enough revenue to keep anyone employed to work on it, unfortunately."
Grenier said this in response to a question about Wildlight's previously announced Year 1 DLC roadmap for Highguard. Someone asked why Wildlight was not going to keep the game online long enough to get all of that content out the door, and Grenier said the studio does not have enough funds to continue.
Beyond funding, Wildlight already laid off the majority of its staff. The final Highguard update, which was released on March 4, required the remaining staffers to "crunch" to get it out the door, according to Wildlight co-founder Jason McCord.
"The team crunched the last few weeks to get it done. Some stuff (Koldo, Switchback) was partially done, scheduled for future seasons. The team picked the stuff that was closest to completion and finished it up," he said.
When Wildlight was announced years ago, the studio said it was "fully-funded," but did not elaborate as to its funding sources or what, exactly, being "fully-funded" meant. It later came to light that Chinese gaming giant Tencent was the main funder of Wildlight and Highguard.
A report said after Highguard launched, Tencent pulled funding. The game started strong with nearly 100,000 concurrent players on Steam alone, but player numbers quickly fell off a cliff. Free-to-play games rely on player spending, and with a low player population, the game apparently was not bringing in enough to sustain ongoing development.
Grenier also commented on the Bloomberg report that cited anonymous developers at Wildlight saying "hubris" was to blame, in part, for Highguard's failure.
"I think sometimes people get hubris mixed up with optimism," he said, adding that the studio's leaders never expected or needed Highguard to have the same level of success that Apex Legends had.
"We were just hoping more players would go on the journey with us as we continued to add to the game post-launch. We of course recognized the risks," he said.
Another Highguard developer said the game struggled because it was too "sweaty" and wasn't appealing enough to casual players.
Highguard is closing its servers after just 45 days, but that's not actually the fastest launch-to-shutdown we've ever seen from a high-profile game. Sony's live-service game Concord is perhaps the most notable example, having shut down just 14 days after release, with its developer shuttered.
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According to Chad Grenier, the studio head at Wildlight and game director for Highguard who previously worked on Apex Legends and Titanfall, it came down to money. He said on social media, "Not enough revenue to keep anyone employed to work on it, unfortunately."
Grenier said this in response to a question about Wildlight's previously announced Year 1 DLC roadmap for Highguard. Someone asked why Wildlight was not going to keep the game online long enough to get all of that content out the door, and Grenier said the studio does not have enough funds to continue.
Beyond funding, Wildlight already laid off the majority of its staff. The final Highguard update, which was released on March 4, required the remaining staffers to "crunch" to get it out the door, according to Wildlight co-founder Jason McCord.
"The team crunched the last few weeks to get it done. Some stuff (Koldo, Switchback) was partially done, scheduled for future seasons. The team picked the stuff that was closest to completion and finished it up," he said.
When Wildlight was announced years ago, the studio said it was "fully-funded," but did not elaborate as to its funding sources or what, exactly, being "fully-funded" meant. It later came to light that Chinese gaming giant Tencent was the main funder of Wildlight and Highguard.
A report said after Highguard launched, Tencent pulled funding. The game started strong with nearly 100,000 concurrent players on Steam alone, but player numbers quickly fell off a cliff. Free-to-play games rely on player spending, and with a low player population, the game apparently was not bringing in enough to sustain ongoing development.
Grenier also commented on the Bloomberg report that cited anonymous developers at Wildlight saying "hubris" was to blame, in part, for Highguard's failure.
"I think sometimes people get hubris mixed up with optimism," he said, adding that the studio's leaders never expected or needed Highguard to have the same level of success that Apex Legends had.
"We were just hoping more players would go on the journey with us as we continued to add to the game post-launch. We of course recognized the risks," he said.
Another Highguard developer said the game struggled because it was too "sweaty" and wasn't appealing enough to casual players.
Highguard is closing its servers after just 45 days, but that's not actually the fastest launch-to-shutdown we've ever seen from a high-profile game. Sony's live-service game Concord is perhaps the most notable example, having shut down just 14 days after release, with its developer shuttered.
Source