Highguard dev Wildlight reportedly hit with major layoffs two weeks after launch, game looks doomed

Highguard, the free-to-play team-based raid shooter that launched on January 26, has reportedly laid off most of its development team at Wildlight Entertainment just two weeks after release, which doesn’t bode well for the game’s future. Many are already speculating at the game’s eventual closure.

The report comes from a LinkedIn post by senior level designer Alex Graner, who wrote that he was laid off “along with most of the team at Wildlight.” Wildlight hasn’t publicly confirmed the scope of the cuts, and it’s not clear what this means for the game’s ongoing support.

Highguard was revealed at The Game Awards in December and pitched as a PvP “raid shooter.” On Steam, it’s described as a mode where players ride out as Wardens, fight other teams, gather loot and resources, secure their base, and try to take down the enemy’s base.

Wildlight’s lineup included developers with experience on Titanfall and Apex Legends, but the studio’s plans now look uncertain. Player numbers have also dropped sharply since launch: SteamDB shows a peak of over 97,000 players at release, with a 24-hour peak of 3,580 as of this writing.

Graner also said the layoffs “sting” because there was unreleased content he and others had been working on. For now, that content, and the future of Highguard overall, is up in the air.

My speculation is that the game will be entirely shut down in the next few months, or at the very least its closure will be announced.