Highguard Has Less Than 20 Developers, Layoffs Due to Tencent Pulling Funding – Rumor

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It’s easy to forget about Highguard, the first game from Wildlight Entertainment. It launched last month amidst some controversy following The Game Awards and initially attracted a lot of players on Steam. However, the number of players quickly dropped, and while user reviews improved from “Overwhelmingly Negative” to “Mixed,” it wasn’t enough to reverse the decline.

Shortly after launching its game, Wildlight announced it was laying off employees, though a small team will continue creating content. A recent Bloomberg report by Jason Schreier, based on interviews with former employees, revealed the 100-person studio actually had sufficient funding. However, during a meeting on February 11th, company leaders reportedly stated they had run out of money.

Tencent reportedly stopped funding the game because player retention wasn’t high enough, though company leaders may not have stated it that way directly. Now, fewer than 20 developers are still working on the project, and those who left have said that leadership was overconfident in their approach. While this team previously created the successful game Apex Legends, the situation isn’t surprising given how much has changed.

Wildlight is consistently updating Highguard as planned, which is a good sign – unlike what happened with Anthem. However, the game hasn’t attracted a large player base so far. You can find a more in-depth look in our original review.

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2026-02-26 22:41