“Highguard Developer Reflects on Initial Optimism Before Trailer Release Led to Disappointment”
Tech artist Josh Sobel, one of the many developers from Highguard recently affected by significant layoffs at Wildlight Studios, has shared an in-depth reflection on the game’s launch, marketing, and overall reception. Sobel expressed strong confidence in the game before its release but recounted a wave of harassment that followed the reveal trailer at the Game Awards, attributing some of the backlash to “absurd amounts of effort” aimed at “slandering Highguard.”
In his piece titled “Reflecting On Shipping My First Game,” Sobel noted that everyone connected to the project shared a similar optimism, with sentiments like “this is lightning in a bottle” and “there’s no way this will flop.” He emphasized, “If there’s one project nobody in the industry is worried will fail, it’s yours.”
Pre-reveal feedback aligned with this positive outlook, he mentioned, and any negative comments were constructive and actionable. For instance, following player complaints about slow matches and empty maps, Highguard introduced a 5v5 mode that became a permanent feature.
However, Sobel described a drastic shift after the trailer’s release, stating, “the hate started immediately,” as “hundreds of angry gamers” flooded his Twitter replies and Highguard’s posts with negativity.
“After setting my Twitter account to private to protect my sanity, many content creators made videos and posts about me and my cowardice,” he recounted. “They mocked my pride in the game, suggested I apply at McDonald’s, and ridiculed my mention of autism in my bio, which they interpreted as a sign the game would be ‘woke trash.’ This was incredibly emotionally taxing.”
Sobel acknowledged that while there is valid criticism regarding Highguard’s trailer, marketing, and launch, he believes it’s impossible to determine if the game’s reception would have been better or worse without the intense scrutiny following its Game Awards appearance.
Wildlight CEO Dusty Welch stated he would continue to question whether moving away from a planned shadow drop for Highguard—similar to Apex Legends, a project many Wildlight staff previously worked on—was the right choice.
Sobel also tackled the negativity surrounding Highguard, noting that the game faced skepticism from the start and had to prove itself in a competitive PvP landscape. He doesn’t attribute the game’s struggles solely to angry gamers but suggests that the pre-existing negativity hindered its chances of success.
He expressed concern that a culture of reveling in the failure of games like Highguard could lead to stagnation in the multiplayer genre over time. “I’m not saying our failure is purely the fault of gamer culture and that the game would have thrived without the negative discourse, but it absolutely played a role,” he stated. “All products are at the whims of the consumers, and the consumers put absurd amounts of effort into slandering Highguard. And it worked.”
Sobel warned that if this trend continues, the multiplayer space may be dominated solely by corporations, stifling innovation. “Innovation is on life support,” he added.
In closing, he extended his best wishes to “the few who remain” at Wildlight, asserting, “Even if Highguard had a rocky launch, our independent, self-published, dev-led studio full of passionate people just trying to make a fun game, with zero AI, and zero corporate oversight…deserved better than this. We deserved the bare minimum of not having our downfall be gleefully manifested.”
Our review of Highguard rated the game 3/5 stars, describing it as a “fresh but muddled FPS genre mashup that needs refinement.”
The publishing director for Baldur’s Gate 3 stated that Geoff Keighley is not to blame for Highguard’s issues and the resulting layoffs, adding that those who think otherwise have “little understanding” of the industry.
