Layoffs have been confirmed at the team behind the new multiplayer shooter.
Wildlight Entertainment has confirmed layoffs at the studio behind the recently released free-to-play multiplayer shooter Highguard, just over two weeks after its 26 January launch.
Former senior level designer Alex Graner first shared the news on LinkedIn, stating: “Unfortunately, along with most of the team at Wildlight, I was laid off today.”
Graner also commented on the impact of the layoffs on upcoming content, writing: “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.” The total number of affected employees has not been disclosed.
The studio later addressed the situation on its official X (formerly Twitter) account, posting: “Today we made an incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members while keeping a core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game.”
Highguard’s Steam player numbers dropped sharply after launch
Industry analyst Mat Piscatella from Circana, which tracks game sales and engagement data, noted on BlueSky that Highguard “debuted in the top 10 in weekly active users on US Steam, was Top 20 on both US PlayStation and Xbox (Circana Player Engagement Tracker week ending 1/31/26) and yet…”
According to SteamDB, Highguard reached a peak concurrent player count of 97,249 on Steam at launch. Two weeks later, that figure stood at 4,524 concurrent players on PC.
However, the game also launched to Overwhelmingly Negative reviews on Steam, with many complaining about the game’s performance, maps, systems, and in-game mechanics, like the 3v3 competitive mode.
A 5v5 mode was introduced days later following player reception to the original smaller-scale format. On release day, the studio also published a roadmap outlining seven separate episodes planned across the year, with monthly updates set to introduce new items, modes, and characters.
Wildlight has stated that a core development team will remain in place to continue supporting and developing Highguard.
