Former Highguard dev who called out grave-dancing over the reveal trailer says the discourse ‘had some very dark corners that may have accelerated the timeline of our failure,’ but adds, ‘it wasn’t the primary cause’

With one day left before Highguard is gone for good, the former developer who cut loose on critics of the game’s reveal trailer has walked things back a bit in a new post, saying his initial reaction “was a mistake” arising from stress, anger, and lack of sleep.

Josh Sobel, formerly the lead technical artist on Highguard, shared some pretty raw opinions on the game’s demise in a now-deleted February post on X, saying “the hate started immediately” following the TGA trailer, and that “we were turned into a joke from minute one.” He also implied pretty strongly that the backlash contributed significantly to Highguard’s failure. All in all, it was pretty bitter—understandably so, I’d say, especially in the heat of the moment.