Highguard, developed by Wildlight Entertainment, saw strong early interest ahead of launch but quickly lost momentum, with player numbers dropping sharply within a day of release. The title drew attention partly because members of the team had previously worked on games such as Apex Legends and Titanfall. Reports later surfaced that the studio had laid off most of its staff.
Josh Sobel, the former Lead Tech Artist at Wildlight, said in a post on X that internal sentiment had been optimistic prior to the game’s reveal at The Game Awards 2025. After more than two years of development, he said the team believed the project had mainstream potential based on internal and external feedback.
According to Sobel, negative reactions escalated soon after the reveal trailer was released, shaping the public narrative around the game. “Within minutes, it was decided: this game was dead on arrival, and creators now had free ragebait content for a month,” he wrote, describing what he viewed as a wave of critical online coverage and meme-driven commentary.
Sobel acknowledged that Highguard had flaws and that some criticism was justified. However, he argued that review activity significantly affected the game’s prospects. “At launch, we received over 14k review bombs from users with less than an hour of playtime. Many didn’t even finish the required tutorial,” he said, suggesting the scale of negative feedback limited the title’s ability to recover.
See also: Wildlight’s Highguard Struggles With Negative Steam Reviews After Debut
He added that the experience should serve as a cautionary example for independent developers considering large-scale multiplayer projects. While not attributing the outcome solely to online discourse, Sobel said sustained negative attention played a role in shaping the game’s commercial trajectory.