Highguard studio lays off "most" of its devs, Geoff Keighley calls it "an unfortunate, brutal, and sad outcome"

Even though I'm not the biggest fan of Highguard, I still didn't want the doomsayers' predictions of a swift decline and death to come true. While any ambitions of being the next big FPS game were quickly extinguished, I still had some optimism it could carve out a smaller, passionate community that could support it for at least the duration of Wildlight Entertainment's year-long Highguard roadmap. However, just two weeks on from launch, the studio has announced a round of layoffs, and according to accounts by some staff, it affects "most" of its workforce.

While the execution wasn't quite there at launch, Highguard did at least put a big tick in the first box all new multiplayer shooters should check off - it had new ideas. The loop of barricading your base, farming, playing a mini game of capture the flag, then either attacking or defending a base, is pretty novel, and I actually like the concept. The problem is the execution, particularly of that middle section of the match loop, and I think that's what pushed a lot of other FPS fans like myself away. Put aside whatever thoughts you have about its Game Awards reveal - while it probably didn't help matters, it's not the thing that's put Wildlight in the situation it now finds itself in.

"Today we made an incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members while keeping a core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game," Wildlight says in a statement on social media. "We're proud of the team, talent, and the product we've created together. We're also grateful for players who gave the game a shot, and those who continue to be a part of our community."

While that message doesn't indicate how many people have been laid off, a LinkedIn post by one of the affected developers suggests that the majority of the team has been let go.

"Unfortunately, along with most of the team at Wildlight, I was laid off today," level designer Alex Graner writes. "This one really stings as there was a lot of unreleased content I was really looking forward to that I and others designed for Highguard."

Senior analyst Mohammad Alavi also writes that "most of its staff" have been impacted.

While there's always a high chance of layoffs when a multiplayer game starts hitting player numbers like we're seeing on Steam at the moment, the majority of people (myself included) seem pretty stunned by how rapidly this has happened.

Geoff Keighley, who of course was hugely supportive of Wildlight and secured it that 'one last thing' slot at last year's Game Awards, says on X: "A large part of the Wildlight Entertainment team that worked on Highguard has been laid off, just 16 days after release. An unfortunate, brutal, and sad outcome for a game I enjoyed in early play tests."

Michael 'Cromwelp' Douse, the director of publishing at Baldur's Gate 3 studio Larian, says: "The Highguard layoffs, like many others, are a sad reminder of the economic instability of an industry that asks the world but promises little. That said, blaming one man for showing a trailer on his telly show is a sophomoric take that shows little understanding of industry!"

Professional Apex Legends player Zachary 'Zach' Mazer also calls out the unfair review bombing Highguard received on Steam from players with tiny amounts of game time. "Outside of FPS/optimization issues, the hate it got was unreal," he says.

Due to the suddenness at which Wildlight has reduced its team size, I now wonder what this means for the lifespan of the game and the seven episodes of content it pledged for 2026.

In an interview last month with GamesRadar, Jason Torfin, the VP of product and publishing at Wildlight, said that it has "a year's worth of post-launch content already deep in development," so there's a good chance some of that content is already finished and ready to roll out.

However, that was also true for the likes of XDefiant, which had new maps, playable factions, and modes ready to go - however, it dumped all of this content into a final season following the announcement that it would be shutting down.

PCGamesN has reached out to Wildlight for comment on whether its roadmap remains unchanged following the layoffs.