Barely launched, Highguard is already in trouble. The Wildlight Entertainment studio has just announced a wave of layoffs affecting some of its teams, only a little more than two weeks after the release of the multiplayer shooter. This news illustrates a worrying trend in the video game industry, namely that even a launch with great fanfare no longer guarantees the long-term stability of a game.
Presented as a new challenger in the free-to-play shooter field, Highguard received significant media exposure upon its release. We notably mentioned his presence at the Game Awards, where some insiders raised the possibility of a shadow drop before Geoff Keighley favored a more classic emphasis. The game had therefore built a real expectation among a public fond of new multiplayer FPS.
Officially released on January 26, 2026, its immediate popularity was such that the influx of players caused queues. Highguard offers a classic competitive formula initially based on 3v3, with a more nervous positioning than current shooters. Faced with player feedback, Wildlight quickly added a 5v5 mode just a few days after launch.
On paper, the beginnings were far from catastrophic. According to the data Circathe game climbed into the top 10 for weekly active players on Steam in the United States, and into the top 20 on PlayStation and Xbox. On Steam, peak concurrent players reached nearly 100,000 players at launch. A more than respectable number for a new license.
Not enough players?
But the fall was as rapid as the rise. Two weeks later, the daily peak fell to around 4,500 PC players. A brutal decline, but not entirely surprising in today’s ultra-competitive free-to-play ecosystem, where player retention has become the real battle.
In this context, Wildlight has confirmed that it has taken “an incredibly difficult decision“The studio is separating part of its workforce while retaining a core group responsible for continuing the development and monitoring of the game. The exact number of layoffs remains unknown, but the studio had between 51 and 200 employees according to LinkedIn.
Several developers have confirmed the news publicly. Former senior level designer Alex Graner notably mentions unpublished content that the teams were still actively working on, suggesting that the initial roadmap could be impacted.
For now, Wildlight assures that it wants to continue supporting Highguard. The initial plan called for seven episodes of content over the year with new modes, items and characters. The big question now remains the studio’s ability to keep up this pace with a reduced team. Only time will be able to answer our questions.
🟣 To not miss any news on the WorldOfSoftware, follow us on Google and on our WhatsApp channel. And if you love us, .
