Wildlight Entertainment, the new studio behind Highguard, has laid off the majority of its staff shortly following the launch of the live service raid shooter, according to a LinkedIn post from a former employee. The studio was founded by former Respawn developers, behind titles like Apex Legends and Titanfall 1 & 2.
Shortly after news of the layoffs broke, Wildlight Entertainment posted the following statement.
For now, it seems the studio is committing to keeping Highguard live, but with such dramatic staff changes so soon after launch, it’s hard to feel positive about the future of the game.
What happened at Wildlight Entertainment?
Alex Garner, a Level Designer for Wildlight Entertainment, wrote about the layoffs earlier today on LinkedIn. His post read: “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,” he added. “However, I’m excited for my next adventure. If your team or anyone you know needs an experienced Level Designer, hit me up!”
Highguard’s rocky launch and first month
Highguard was just released on Jan. 26, after what can only be described as a tumultuous marketing campaign that began with a high profile announcement at The Game Awards (alongside a heaping portion of praise from Geoff Keighley), continued with radio silence across all official platforms for weeks, and ended with the release of the game on schedule.
Unfortunately, the game wasn’t well received by players. Complaints of poor performance and poorly balanced gameplay marked its first week. Despite a new 5v5 mode and performance updates to address common issues, the player count has drastically decreased since launch. At the time of writing, the 24-hour peak stands at 3,822, way below its all-time high of 97,249 during the release window.
A new Episode (the lore-friendly word for season) of Highguard, featuring a new Warden, location, and Ranked game mode launched just last week, which makes the news of mass lay-offs all the more surprising. Such a dramatic shift for the studio doesn’t bode well for its future, or for the future of any live-service game.
Unfortunately, recent years have been difficult terrain for video game developers, with this news only adding to the list of studio layoffs that have plagued the industry.
