Another Concord-Level Disaster: Highguard Dead in 45 Days
Revealed as the closing surprise of The Game Awards 2025, personally championed by Geoff Keighley, Highguard couldn’t even survive two months. Developer Wildlight Entertainment has announced that the game will be permanently shut down on March 12, 2026.
The story is painfully familiar: big budget, ambitious reveal, rapid collapse. Another name joins the live service graveyard.
From The Game Awards to Silence
Highguard was unveiled in December 2025 during The Game Awards’ most prestigious “one more thing” slot. Wildlight Entertainment, founded by veterans behind titles like Apex Legends and Titanfall, was aiming to make a major splash with the announcement. However, the trailer failed to effectively communicate the game’s mechanics, and audience reception was mixed at best.
Studio co-founder Chad Grenier later admitted the reveal was “maybe a little risky.” The original plan was to do a surprise launch similar to Apex Legends, but Keighley’s personal enthusiasm for the game led to the decision to showcase it at The Game Awards.
100K Players Showed Up, Then Vanished
Highguard launched as a free-to-play title on January 26, 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. In its opening hours, it reached nearly 100,000 concurrent players on Steam — a strong start by any measure. But the momentum didn’t last. Within the first week, the game lost over 90% of its player base and never recovered.
While more than 2 million players tried the game in total, a sustainable community never formed. Wildlight’s statement was blunt:
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.
I personally downloaded the game to give it a try, but I never even felt motivated enough to actually launch it.
Tencent Pulled Funding, Mass Layoffs Followed
Behind the scenes, things were even worse. Reports indicate that Tencent, the game’s initial backer, withdrew its support after Highguard failed to meet certain performance benchmarks. This triggered mass layoffs at the studio. The future of Wildlight Entertainment itself remains uncertain.
One Final Update Before the End
The studio announced it will release one final update before the servers go dark, featuring:
- A new Warden (playable character)
- A new weapon
- Account level progression
- Skill trees
Wildlight invited players to jump in one last time to enjoy the final update together.
The Live Service Graveyard Keeps Growing
Highguard’s rapid demise highlights a chronic problem in the industry. Concord lasted 9 days. Spectre Divide survived a few months. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League struggled for about a year. Remember the Concord story? It launched with sky-high expectations and became one of the fastest AAA shutdowns in history.
Generic, soulless live service games that fail to differentiate themselves from dozens of competitors continue to share the same fate. Major publishers keep pouring millions into chasing the “next Fortnite” dream while players refuse to even give these games a chance.
Highguard’s servers will be permanently shut down on March 12, 2026.