Highguard is a PvP raid shooter released on January 26, 2026, and developed by Wildlight Entertainment, Inc. The studio is packed with former Respawn developers, best known for their work on Apex Legends, Titanfall, and Star Wars games. The game was revealed at The Game Awards 2025 as the final announcement of the show, a spot typically reserved for major titles.
Despite the hype, the launch didn’t meet expectations. In this article, we’ll talk about the development, the effect that The Game Awards announcement had on the game’s image, and the reviews after launch by fans and critics.
The Development of Highguard
Wildlight Entertainment was founded in 2022 by former Respawn developers, including CEO Dusty Welch and design director Jason McCord. The studio brought together talent from major franchises like Apex Legends, Titanfall, Call of Duty, and even God of War. The studio has been quietly working on Highguard for the last four years, keeping the project under wraps until its reveal.
The decision to work on Highguard in secrecy was intentional. According to the developers, they wanted to let the game speak for itself rather than building hype through years of marketing. This approach meant minimal communication with the community and no early access or beta testing for the public before the official announcement.
Highguard’s Reveal
The game was revealed at The Game Awards 2025 as the final announcement of the show, a spot typically reserved for major titles. Host Geoff Keighley created considerable expectation by declaring it was “the most important game he’s ever announced on stage”.
The reaction was immediate and overwhelmingly negative. On the official Game Awards YouTube channel, the trailer received a like-to-dislike ratio of about 429 to 3,500 within minutes. Viewers expressed disappointment in the comments, with many comparing it to other failed hero shooters and questioning why it received such a prominent reveal slot.
The developers admitted the reception was not great and that they probably made the wrong trailer. According to CEO Dusty Welch, the team did not anticipate the backlash that began immediately after its surprise reveal. However, the developers remain confident that the shooter can succeed in a crowded market because of what they see as its unique gameplay loop.
Highguard’s Launch and the First Impressions
The launch didn’t go as planned. Despite reaching 97,249 concurrent players on Steam within its first hour, the game quickly became one of the lowest-rated major launches on the platform. Only 37% of user reviews are positive, placing Highguard in “Mostly Negative” territory on Steam.
Many of the harshest reviews focus on technical issues and design choices. Players criticized the game for poor performance even on high-end hardware. The most common complaint was about the map size. Others pointed out blurry visuals, unclear objectives, and too many overlapping systems that made the experience confusing rather than fun.
However, some observers have suggested Highguard may be facing review bombing, as a noticeable portion of early reviews came from players with less than an hour of playtime. Some reviews showed as little as 0.2 hours on record, barely enough time to adjust the brightness settings. This raised questions about how much of the backlash reflects actual gameplay experience versus first impressions and online sentiment following the negative reception at The Game Awards.
Final Words
Highguard’s struggles highlight how timing and market saturation can make or break a game’s reception. The announcement at The Game Awards set unrealistic expectations for what turned out to be another hero shooter in an oversaturated genre. Players have grown tired of free-to-play extraction shooters and hero-based games, especially after several high-profile failures in recent years.
The combination of the prominent reveal slot and the current state of the genre’s market caused the most damage to the game’s reception, regardless of the game’s actual quality. Wildlight Entertainment may have created a competent shooter, but they released it at the worst possible time to the most skeptical audience.