Highguard Studio CEO Reflects on Toxicity in Gaming and Questions The Game Awards Reveal Decision

Wildlight’s CEO, Dusty Welch, is grappling with the aftermath of Highguard’s unconventional and controversial reveal at The Game Awards 2025, especially as he faces backlash following the game’s rocky launch this week.

Initially intended to be a surprise drop after four years of development, Highguard was showcased as the grand finale of last year’s Game Awards—a prestigious slot typically reserved for more prominent titles—reportedly after some persuasion from the event’s host. The free-to-play shooter, crafted by a team of former Apex Legends and Titanfall developers, struggled to impress on a global scale, presenting a rather generic fantasy world, heroes, and abilities. The general sentiment seemed to echo, “Oh great, another live-service hero shooter.”

In hindsight, Welch acknowledged to an outlet that, “We didn’t do a great job with our trailer … We own that.” However, he remains uncertain about whether revealing Highguard at The Game Awards was the right move. “That’s an incredibly fair question, and it’s one I ask myself quite a bit,” he shared. “It’s something I’ll continue to ponder. Even if we achieve great success, I’ll still question whether that was the best approach. Was there a different or better way? I don’t have the answer to that yet.”

Whether it’s due to live-service fatigue, the game’s reveal, or questionable design choices, the overall reception of Highguard has been less than stellar. While critical reviews are still coming in, the consensus appears to be mixed at best. Welch is still unsure if the now-infamous Game Awards trailer contributed to the negative feedback. “The toxicity is challenging, and it’s debatable whether we would’ve faced more or less by doing the Game Awards,” he remarked. “I don’t know, and we’ll never know. But that’s something to consider for anyone in game development moving forward.”

The buzz surrounding Highguard’s launch has made it difficult to determine its actual quality, especially with limited critical reviews available. Steam reviews are “mostly negative,” but they shift to “mostly positive” when filtered for players with over three hours of gameplay. If someone enjoys the game enough to invest that time, they’re likely to share positive feedback. Yet, it’s also possible that those who take the time to master Highguard’s somewhat intricate systems and match structure might discover it’s more than just a haphazard blend of popular shooters, as many reviews suggest.

I decided to dive in and installed the game last night, and I found myself a bit overwhelmed after a couple of matches. I haven’t played enough to form a solid opinion, but I’m not exactly eager to jump back in right now. On the plus side, it ran smoothly on my aging RX 580-equipped PC, so it deserves some credit there.

Highguard’s first major patch rolled out this week, bringing a host of performance enhancements. Just today, Wildlight announced a limited-time 5v5 mode, seemingly in response to player complaints about map size, which I can confirm is a valid concern in the main 3v3 mode. The studio appears to be taking a highly responsive approach to player feedback, making it hard to predict how Highguard will evolve moving forward.

The new fantasy FPS has a full year of post-launch content “deep in development,” divided into episodes to combat “live-service fatigue”: “We’re building a game that people want to come back to.”