Just before launch, Highguard devs told PC Gamer it wouldn’t need huge player numbers to succeed.
Just over two weeks after releasing the “PvP raid shooter” Highguard on Steam, developer Wildlight Entertainment has reportedly laid off an unspecified but seemingly large number of employees.
The initial word of the layoffs came from level designer Alex Graner, who said in a message on LinkedIn: “Unfortunately, along with most of the team at Wildlight, I was laid off today. 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.”
The sudden layoffs seem to contradict the expectations for Highguard that lead designer Mohammad Alavi expressed to PC Gamer in an interview shortly before launch. “Honestly, we don’t need [player counts] to be super huge in order to be successful,” Alavi said at the time. “What we’re really hoping for is a core group of fans that love us. That will allow us to grow.”
Two weeks seems like an inadequate amount of time for any game to find a “core group of fans,” even if Highguard’s player numbers out of the gate have been weak for a free-to-play game, dropping from an initial 97,249 concurrents on Steam to a daily peak in the low thousands.
In addition to Graner’s LinkedIn post, multiple other developers with full-time roles at the studio have shared that they’re also looking for work. “My position was impacted by the studio layoffs at Wildlight today. This has been an incredible team, and it’s immensely difficult to process that the ride is over,” shared principal sound designer Geoffrey Garnett, whose previous credits include Marathon, Overwatch, and a long list of triple-A games.
Using similar language to Graner, lead tech artist Josh Sobel shared that he was laid off “along with most of the staff.”
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An hour after the news of the layoffs began to circulate, Wildlight Entertainment issued a short statement on X:
“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.
“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.”
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