The Highguard debacle: A tale of false assumptions and a developer's reflection
'We were turned into a joke from minute one' - a chilling statement from a former Highguard developer, Josh Sobel, who reflects on the game's ill-fated launch and the 'false assumptions' that plagued its early days. But here's where it gets controversial... Was it really the gamers' fault, or was there more to it than that?
The Game Awards 2025 trailer for Highguard introduced a world of battling Wardens and their magical mounts, and the game quickly gained traction with a large influx of players on its release. However, there were a few complaints as well, with many disappointed with areas such as map size and the 3v3 game format. The studio sought to address these issues with a number of content updates and patches, while also making its once-limited-time 5v5 mode a permanent feature.
Despite these efforts, it was announced yesterday that multiple Wildlight developers had been laid off, only a matter of weeks since Highguard made its free-to-play debut. According to Sobel, the team was doomed from its announcement, and it was 'all downhill' after the game's reveal at The Game Awards. Sobel writes in a lengthy post on social media that internal feedback on Highguard prior to its reveal 'was quite positive', and the team felt confident it had a hit on its hands. But that positivity left after its The Game Awards trailer.
'Content creators love to point out the bias in folks who give positive previews after being flown out for an event, but ignore the fact that when their negative-leaning content gets 10x the engagement of the positive, they've got just as much incentive to lean into a disingenuous direction, whether consciously or not,' Sobel said. 'The hate started immediately.'
Sobel soon locked his X profile after Highguard's trailer, stating videos were then made about his 'cowardice', with people laughing at him for 'being proud' of Highguard. 'All of this was very emotionally taxing,' he said.
'There is much constructive criticism that can be and has been said about Highguard's trailer, marketing, and launch, but I don’t think it’s my place to commentate on that. I also don't think there’s any way to know whether the launch would have fared better or worse without the massive spotlight that was thrown onto us in response to The Game Awards' trailer placement. But we never got that chance,' Sobel continued.
'We were turned into a joke from minute one, largely due to false assumptions about a million-dollar ad placement, which even prominent journalists soon began to state as fact. Within minutes, it was decided: this game was dead on arrival, and creators now had free ragebait content for a month. Every one of our videos on social media got downvoted to hell. Comments sections were flooded with copy/paste meme phrases such as 'Concord 2' and 'Titanfall 3 died for this'. At launch, we received over 14k review bombs from users with less than an hour of playtime. Many didn't even finish the required tutorial.'
Sobel remarked that in online discussions about games like Highguard, Concord and 2XKO, people tend to say developers blame their failures on the gamers. However, Sobel says that is a 'silly' notion, as gamers still have the power to inform discourse.
'I'm not saying our failure is purely the fault of gamer culture and that the game would have thrived without the negative discourse, but it absolutely played a role,' Sobel said. 'All products are at the whims of the consumers, and the consumers put absurd amounts of effort into slandering Highguard. And it worked.'
While Sobel's words may sound bitter, it is undeniably a shame to see a game stumble out of the starting gate. To be clear, Highguard itself has not been shut down, with a 'core group' of developers still working on it. For how much longer, who can say. But whatever the end result, it is never nice to see a game 'fail', and hear about layoffs across the industry.
As for Sobel, he said that 'even though this adventure has come to an abrupt and emotionally challenging close' for him, he doesn't 'regret one second of it'.
Following its rocky debut, other developers across the industry also voiced their support for Highguard, with Splitgate: Arena Reloaded studio 1047 Games stating: 'No game is perfect on day one.'
And this is the part most people miss... The question remains: Was it really the gamers' fault, or was there more to it than that?
