Highguard Shuts Down Less Than 2 Months After Launch

Wildlight Entertainment announced on March 4 that its free-to-play hero shooter Highguard will shut down permanently on March 12, less than two months after its launch on January 26. The PvP raid game, developed by a team of veterans from titles like Apex Legends, debuted to a peak of nearly 100,000 concurrent players on Steam but failed to retain an audience amid a competitive live-service market.

The studio cited insufficient revenue to sustain operations as the primary reason for the closure. Servers will remain online until the shutdown date, allowing players one final opportunity to engage. In a statement, Wildlight expressed gratitude to the community: "Since launch, more than two million players stepped into Highguard's world. You shared feedback, created content, and many believed in what we were building. For that, we are deeply grateful. Despite the passion and hard work of our team, we have not been able to build a sustainable player base to support the game long term."

To mark the end, Wildlight released its largest update on March 3, developed by a reduced team of about 20 staff members. The patch introduces account-wide progression, where players earn XP to reach...