Highguard is Permanently Shutting Down on March 12th

by

After a rocky launch filled with controversy, declining player numbers, and staff reductions, Wildlight Entertainment has officially announced that Highguard will close its servers on March 12th. They will keep the game running until then and even add some new content before the shutdown.

The team announced on Twitter that over two million players have already explored the world of Highguard since its release. They expressed deep gratitude for the player feedback, creative content, and support that helped build the game.

We’re sad to announce that the game won’t be able to continue long-term, even with all the effort from our team and the support of our players. The game servers will be online until March 12th. We’d love for you to join us for one last time to enjoy some final matches and show your support before then.

I’m so excited! The update is coming either today or tomorrow, and it sounds amazing. They’re adding a new Warden, a new weapon, and completely revamping the skill trees. Plus, we’re finally getting account-level progression! The Wildlight team said they really appreciate us playing and being a part of the Highguard story, which is awesome to hear.

The game Highguard was revealed at The Game Awards 2025, but the announcement didn’t go over well with the audience. Originally, the developers at Wildlight planned to surprise everyone with an immediate release during the show. However, after host Geoff Keighley visited their studio, they decided to share a trailer instead. After the negative response, the team remained quiet until the game finally launched on January 26th.

Although Highguard initially attracted almost 98,000 players on Steam, it quickly received very negative reviews because of technical problems and gameplay decisions. While those reviews have improved to ‘Mixed’ now, the number of players dropped off rapidly. Recently, the game has struggled to maintain even 1,000 concurrent players on Steam.

Originally presented as independently funded, the game Highguard was later claimed to have received financial backing from TiMi Studio Group, a division of Tencent. Reports suggest that when the game didn’t perform as expected, TiMi withdrew its funding, resulting in job losses at Wildlight. Although development was going well, some former staff members believe the game ultimately failed due to overconfidence from leadership, who reportedly skipped important external playtesting.

Read More

2026-03-04 00:11