Wildlight Entertainment, the developer of raid shooter Highguard, has laid off a significant amount of its development team, 16 days after the title’s launch.
The developer announced that it will keep “a core group of developers” to continue supporting the title, which launched on January 26th.
Announced as the final title of The Game Awards in December 2025, Highguard quickly captured the attention of players. Created by former Titanfall and Apex Legends developers, Highguard reached a peak player count of 97,249 shortly after launch, before numbers declined.
Wildlight Entertainment quickly acknowledged player feedback, with the permanent addition of a five-versus-five mode and the introduction of a ranked mode for those looking for a competitive experience.
“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,” wrote Wildlight Entertainment on social media.
“We’re proud of the team, talent, and the product we’ve created together. We’re also grateful for players who gave the game a shot, and those who continue to be a part of our community.”
Many staff have sinced announded their departure from the company on social media platforms such as LinkedIn. Jobye-Kyle Karmaker, former Environment Artist at Wildlight Entertainment, stated in a post: “It’s been a crazy two-and-a-half-year journey with some of the highest highs and the lowest lows I’ve ever had in my game dev career…
“I’m still incredibly proud of what we put together in Highguard, despite what’s happening.”
What Next For Highguard?
With a small group of developers continuing to work on Highguard, attention turns to the second Episode 2 update expected to arrive in March. In January, Wildlight Entertainment shared a full roadmap of post-launch content releasing over the next ten months.
Despite Wildlight Entertainment’s swift response to criticism and the arrival of new features, Highguard has already put measures in place to try to survive in an increasingly competitive live service sector.
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