Few game announcements at The Game Awards have been as widely panned as the reveal of Highguard, the new Xbox, PC, and PS5 PvP "raid shooter" from fledgling developer Wildlight Entertainment. It was the infamous capstone for The Game Awards 2025, with fans responding extremely negatively to the news that former Titanfall developers were bringing a new hero shooter to an extremely crowded market.
It's no exaggeration to say that the reveal was a disaster for Highguard and Wildlight, and dug the game into a huge hole that it's fighting to climb out of now that it's launched with a re-reveal showcase that actually advertises what it is more accurately, highlighting its blend of battle royale looting and survival game-inspired base raiding that makes it stand out from other hero shooters.
Recently, the studio's CEO Dusty Welch shared his thoughts about that devastating reveal and its impact, acknowledging that Wildlight was hoping for something far more positive and could have made a "better trailer" that shone light on Highguard's distinct gameplay elements.
"Look, I wish Highguard had been received better. I wish the feedback had been better. Part of that's on us, right? We didn't put our heads in the sand. We, as a team, saw the feedback. We're gamers ourselves. We're online ourselves reading the feedback," he told PC Gamer.
"I think, ultimately, we could have made a different trailer — a better trailer that wasn't about entertaining, which is what we think [The Game Awards] was about," he continued. "We could have made something that did a better job of highlighting the unique loop of the game. So that's on us. We take that, but the team is resilient."
Notably, Highguard sensationally went completely radio silent after its poorly received announcement, which made many assume that it was because of how catastrophically badly it went. There wasn't a single piece of marketing for the FPS until just a few days before launch, which had many thinking it was about to catch a major delay.
According to director Jason McCord, however, Wildlight's plan was always to "go dark" after the reveal until launch, with the studio trying to replicate the same success that many of its developers had introducing and launching Apex Legends out of nowhere back in early 2019.
"The trailer at The Game Awards was meant to be an announcement trailer. The plan was to announce, go dark, and then the next thing that we want players to see is the game," McCord explained. "If the reception had been totally different, it would have been the same plan. The key is, you've got to play the game."
Well, people are playing the game, now, and ultimately, Highguard is still off to quite a rocky start. It's launched to brutal Steam reviews thus far, with only 20% of its current 6,561 user reviews positive. That's earned it a crimson "Overwhelmingly Negative" badge, with many complaining about poor performance, uninspired shooter combat, and maps that are far too large for its 3v3 format.
The game's launch day player numbers also failed to reach 100K on Steam before peaking and then tapering off; Wildlight may say it doesn't need a "super huge" player count and is mostly hoping for a "core group of players that love us," but at the moment, it seems there aren't many fans that love Highguard. Perhaps that will change, but overall, things aren't looking great.
What are your early impressions of Highguard from what you've seen or played? Do you think there's a future for Wildlight's debut FPS, or do you expect to see it struggle to attract a lasting audience? Hit me up with your take in the comments.
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