- Wildlight Entertainment has laid off most of its staff following the terrible launch of Highguard.
- The studio has only kept a core group of developers to continue working on the hero shooter.
- Highguard launched to overwhelmingly negative reviews on Steam after its reveal at The Game Awards.
Despite Wildlight Entertainment claiming they were not scared of making another Concord, Highguard’s aftermath hasn’t turned out any better. The game lost the entirety of its player base in merely two days after launch, debuting with only negative reviews on Steam and becoming the worst-rated title of 2026 on Metacritic.
The studio has been hit hard by the negativity surrounding Highguard, and, as it turns out, Wildlight Entertainment has laid off most of its employees, leaving only a core group of developers.
Why it matters: The culture in the gaming industry needs a reset, as even minor failures can lead to studio closures or staff layoffs.
As Alex Garner revealed on LinkedIn, most of the team at Highguard developer Wildlight Entertainment was laid off. The level designer disclosed that a lot of unreleased content for the shooting title is still in the pipeline, which makes losing the job hurt even more.
Many other developers took to social media to post about the layoffs, including Josh Sobel, who corroborated Garner’s statement that most of the staff were let go, underscoring the sheer scope of the layoffs.
In a statement to Kotaku, the studio confirmed that they have kept only a core group of developers to continue working on and improving Highguard for players invested in the hero shooter.
According to Wildlight Entertainment, a single-player mode is currently in development, so this makes sense. However, the studio’s treatment of its employees is an indictment of current gaming culture, as only a few days ago, Wildlight claimed that player counts don’t really matter for Highguard.
Do you think Highguard will ever find its way back into the limelight, or is the game now dead for good? Tell us in the comments below or head to the Tech4Gamers forum for discussion.
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Shameer Sarfaraz has previously worked for eXputer as a Senior News Writer for several years. Now with Tech4Gamers, he loves to devotedly keep up with the latest gaming and entertainment industries. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and years of experience reporting on games. Besides his passion for breaking news stories, Shahmeer loves spending his leisure time farming away in Stardew Valley. VGC, IGN, GameSpot, Game Rant, TheGamer, GamingBolt, The Verge, NME, Metro, Dot Esports, GameByte, Kotaku Australia, PC Gamer, and more have cited his articles.
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