A new report sheds more light on the situation surrounding the free-to-play shooter Highguard, which launched to big numbers but quickly cratered, with developer Widlight laying off staff and leaving people to wonder if the studio would eventually pull the plug entirely on the game. The biggest takeaway from the report is that former staff said "hubris" was to blame, in part, for the game's downfall.
Bloomberg reported that Highguard was tested "extensively" with internal and external players, and the feedback was reported to have been "mostly positive." However, there were some road bumps, too, including a general sense that it was a "complicated game to learn" and was more fun with voice chat enabled. People inside Wildlight reportedly asked management if the team could open the game up to an audience of public testers, similar to how Arc Raiders and Battlefield 6 handled pre-release community testing, but Wildlight management reportedly "nixed" those plans.
The idea from the top, the report claimed, was that the studio wanted to shadowdrop Highguard like Apex Legends, a game that many of the staff on Highguard also worked on. That was reported to have been the plan until The Game Awards host and organizer Geoff Keighley played an early version of the game and agreed to give Wildlight a prime spot at The Game Awards for $0.
Highguard was in development for years, and developers reportedly felt good about the working environment and had hopes to earn performance-based bonuses if the game succeeded. The report claimed one of the reasons some of the developers left Respawn to start Wildlight was because Apex Legends made billions of dollars but that success was not shared with the team in the form of profit-sharing at a level the developers wanted to see.
Highguard eventually launched on January 26. It reached almost 100,000 peak concurrent users on Steam, and the Bloomberg report said the game had "similar numbers" on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The game was received well by some and criticized by others, who said the game's 3v3-only setup at launch was an odd choice given how large the maps were.
After seven days, Highguard's player numbers plummeted. Wildlight added a 5v5 mode, but it didn't do the trick of getting the game back on track. Even so, the report said Wildlight staffers believed they had enough funds to work on the game for "at least the next few months." However, an all-hands meeting was called on February 11, with management informing staff that "the studio was out of money" and most of the 100-strong team would be let go. Today, a skeleton crew of around 20 people are still with Wildlight, updating the game and keeping servers running.
The report said Highguard was backed by Chinese gaming giant Tencent. The company reportedly "pulled the studio's funding," with staff theorizing that ongoing financing was tied to reaching certain metrics, including player retention.
Several former developers told Bloomberg that "hubris" was part of the reason why Highguard failed the way it did. The company's top bosses included people like Dusty Welch and Chad Grenier, who enjoyed tremendous success with Call of Duty, Titanfall, and Apex Legends previously.
Wildlight previously laid out Year 1 DLC roadmap and had promised to deliver new updates at a faster pace than Apex Legends, but those plans now seem to be in jeopardy.
A former Wildlight developer, Josh Sobel, mourned Highguard, saying the future seemed bright for the game until The Game Awards.
Source
Bloomberg reported that Highguard was tested "extensively" with internal and external players, and the feedback was reported to have been "mostly positive." However, there were some road bumps, too, including a general sense that it was a "complicated game to learn" and was more fun with voice chat enabled. People inside Wildlight reportedly asked management if the team could open the game up to an audience of public testers, similar to how Arc Raiders and Battlefield 6 handled pre-release community testing, but Wildlight management reportedly "nixed" those plans.
The idea from the top, the report claimed, was that the studio wanted to shadowdrop Highguard like Apex Legends, a game that many of the staff on Highguard also worked on. That was reported to have been the plan until The Game Awards host and organizer Geoff Keighley played an early version of the game and agreed to give Wildlight a prime spot at The Game Awards for $0.
Highguard was in development for years, and developers reportedly felt good about the working environment and had hopes to earn performance-based bonuses if the game succeeded. The report claimed one of the reasons some of the developers left Respawn to start Wildlight was because Apex Legends made billions of dollars but that success was not shared with the team in the form of profit-sharing at a level the developers wanted to see.
Highguard eventually launched on January 26. It reached almost 100,000 peak concurrent users on Steam, and the Bloomberg report said the game had "similar numbers" on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The game was received well by some and criticized by others, who said the game's 3v3-only setup at launch was an odd choice given how large the maps were.
After seven days, Highguard's player numbers plummeted. Wildlight added a 5v5 mode, but it didn't do the trick of getting the game back on track. Even so, the report said Wildlight staffers believed they had enough funds to work on the game for "at least the next few months." However, an all-hands meeting was called on February 11, with management informing staff that "the studio was out of money" and most of the 100-strong team would be let go. Today, a skeleton crew of around 20 people are still with Wildlight, updating the game and keeping servers running.
The report said Highguard was backed by Chinese gaming giant Tencent. The company reportedly "pulled the studio's funding," with staff theorizing that ongoing financing was tied to reaching certain metrics, including player retention.
Several former developers told Bloomberg that "hubris" was part of the reason why Highguard failed the way it did. The company's top bosses included people like Dusty Welch and Chad Grenier, who enjoyed tremendous success with Call of Duty, Titanfall, and Apex Legends previously.
Wildlight previously laid out Year 1 DLC roadmap and had promised to deliver new updates at a faster pace than Apex Legends, but those plans now seem to be in jeopardy.
A former Wildlight developer, Josh Sobel, mourned Highguard, saying the future seemed bright for the game until The Game Awards.
Source