- The team behind Highguard believes player counts don’t matter much when looking at the bigger picture.
- Wildlight Entertainment’s CEO states that players loving the game matters most, regardless of the community’s size.
- Highguard’s recent perception has somewhat changed for the better following the introduction of a 5v5 mode.
Highguard is the latest free-to-play first-person shooter to hit the market and bet big on the live-service trend. Unfortunately, the game has been critiqued a bit too harshly following its Game Awards debut.
As the game’s real-world performance continues to unravel following a surprisingly huge audience turnover on day one, the Wildlight Entertainment boss has stated that player counts ultimately don’t mean much to the team.
Why it matters: Highguard’s numbers on Steam indicate that the first-person shooter has lost most of its audience. However, it doesn’t appear to be failing nearly as badly as many people had expected.
Speaking to Polygon, Wildlight Entertainment CEO Dusty Welch admitted that the team pursued a free-to-play model to appeal to as many players as possible.
The studio also experimented with a potential premium model, but ended up going the free-to-play route as it made the most sense. According to Dusty Welch, player counts are not the be-all, end-all for Wildlight Entertainment.
Instead, he believes that people loving and showing a passion for the game is the most important. To this end, he finds that even a dedicated community of a few thousand is more than enough.
Whether it gets a thousand people or a hundred million people, it doesn’t matter. What matters most is that the game is loved most by the people who played it.
-Dusty Welch
Whether the CEO’s wish will come to fruition is anybody’s guess for now, but the recent addition of 5v5 gameplay has led to slightly more positive conversations regarding Highguard.
The first-person shooter also appears to have somewhat stabilized at daily concurrent peaks of 5-10K players on Steam after initially losing 90% of the day-one audience.
What do you think about the developer’s comment? Share in the comments and on the Tech4Gamers Forums.
Thank you! Please share your positive feedback. 🔋
How could we improve this post? Please Help us. 😔
[Senior News Reporter]
Avinash is currently pursuing a Business degree in Australia. For more than 5 years, he has been working as a gaming journalist, utilizing his writing skills and love for gaming to report on the latest updates in the industry. Avinash loves to play action games like Devil May Cry and has also been mentioned on highly regarded websites, such as IGN, GamesRadar, GameRant, Dualshockers, CBR, and Gamespot.
Join Our Community
