Hyped Free-To-Play Game Hit With Major Layoffs Less Than 3 Weeks After Launch

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It’s become increasingly challenging for games in the ‘live service’ model to succeed. We’ve seen many promising games launch with a lot of hype, only to quickly struggle and shut down – sometimes within days or weeks. This unfortunately impacts the development studios behind them, and it’s happened again recently, with a highly anticipated free-to-play game leading to significant layoffs at its studio less than three weeks after release.

Today, many employees of Wildlight Entertainment, the company that created the new free-to-play game Highguard, announced on LinkedIn that they had been laid off. Wildlight has now confirmed these layoffs, stating they’ve kept a small team of developers to continue working on the game. This news comes just under three weeks after Highguard‘s release, which experienced several problems during its launch.

Today, we made the very difficult decision to reduce our team size. We’re focusing on a smaller core group of developers who will continue to improve and support the game. We’re incredibly proud of everything our team has accomplished together, and we are thankful…

— Wildlight Entertainment (@WildlightEnt) February 12, 2026

Highguard Isn’t The Only High Profile Game To Be Hit With Major Layoffs

Highguard isn’t the only game studio to recently face layoffs after a game launch. Riot Games also recently announced significant cuts to the team behind their new fighting game, 2XKO, which only launched on January 20th. This means the team that created 2XKO has already been substantially reduced in size.

Riot Games recently announced on their blog that while their game, 2XKO, has a dedicated fanbase, it hasn’t gained enough widespread popularity to justify its current development team size. They plan to reorganize the team and focus on making essential improvements to 2XKO to ensure its long-term success.

While Highguard and 2XKO offer very different ways to play, they face similar challenges. Both launched as free-to-play games in a market already packed with popular titles like Marvel Rivals and Overwatch (which recently received a big update). They’re competing for players alongside games like Fortnite, Genshin Impact, Apex Legends, Valorant, Where Winds Meet, and FragPunk – and that’s not even a complete list of the current competition.

Despite having very different paths to release – 2XKO had a beta test, while Highguard was announced just before launch – both games experienced difficult starts. A key problem for both studios was whether they could continue supporting the games long-term, and it appeared this depended on achieving immediate, significant success. Neither game managed that, and now both studios are significantly reducing their teams, which casts doubt on their future.

Currently, Highguard appears to be in a more uncertain situation than 2XKO. While Highguard potentially has more long-term potential, 2XKO benefits from the backing of a larger company. That doesn’t guarantee 2XKO‘s success—Riot Games could still decide to end support for it—but at least it has some established resources. Wildlight doesn’t have that same level of support or other successful games to help keep it stable. It’s unfortunate, because Highguard is still a promising and enjoyable game even as it is now. Hopefully, both games will receive enough updates to thrive, but that’s not a certainty for either one.

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2026-02-12 06:40