Former Highguard developers blame failure on leadership arrogance

One of the first major gaming industry cautionary tales recently occurred, and that was none other than the collapse of Wildlight Entertainment following its surprise release of Highguard, the game that took the last showcase spot at The Game Awards 2025.

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The studio was made up of experienced developers from Respawn Entertainment, the creators of Apex Legends, and received significant funding from Tencent. However, within weeks of Highguard being released, the studio was forced to let go of as many as 100 employees, resulting in less than 20 staff being left behind to salvage the remainder of Highguard. Wildlight Entertainment was formed in 2021 with an incentive pay structure designed to attract top talent, and initially, the studio was creating a multiplayer shooter that was survival-style, inspired by Rust.

In a recent article penned by Bloomberg's Jason Schrier, it states that after two years of development, the studio was forced to pivot in early 2024 to what Highguard is today, a "raid shooter" that is focused on team-based matches.

So what caused its failure?Many factors, such as a discrepancy between the public's experience and internal testing. For example, Highguard heavily depended on coordinated teamwork and voice communication to reach its full potential, which, for many public players, created quite a lot of friction, as not everyone has a microphone or wants to communicate with other players online. Internal testing didn't account for this, and since Highguard didn't do any public betas and was a surprise release, there was no time to account for this blind spot.

Another point of failure is the surprise release itself, which the developers did in an attempt to replicate the success of Apex Legends. However, Apex Legends was released in 2019 at the height of the Battle Royale genre, taking flight, and the 2026 market is very different. Live service games releasing in the current market typically require long testing phases to make changes according to players' needs, and to cover any necessary blind spots left behind by development.

The lack of beta phases and the online chatter about the title already comparing it to Concord, Sony's $400 million complete failure, was a concoction of trouble for Highguard. The publication writes that former employees attribute the failure of Highguard to hubris by studio executives, as they believed they could replicate the success of Apex Legends despite market conditions changing, player needs, and design choices.

The story of Highguard stands as an example that even veteran game developers with a healthy investment and seemingly a good idea can still fall victim to the brutality of the market, especially when they go in thinking they are going to hit a home run.