Wildlight Entertainment has announced that it will permanently shut down its free-to-play hero shooter Highguard on March 12th, 2026.
The live-service game is being shuttered 45 days after it first launched back in January, with the developer citing that Highguard failed to ‘build a sustainable player base’.
“Today we’re sharing difficult news,” Wildlight Entertainment wrote on social media. “We have made the decision to permanently shut down Highguard on March 12th.
“Despite the passion and hard work of our team, we have not been able to build a sustainable player base to support the game long term. Servers will remain online until March 12th.”
According to the developer’s statement, the game will release a final update ahead of its closure. The patch will bring a new playable warden, a new weapon, account-level progression, and skill trees to Highguard.
According to data platform SteamDB, Highguard has dropped to a 24-hour peak of 460 concurrent players, a fraction of its 97,000 peak when the game first launched on January 26th, 2026. These numbers do not reflect player counts on console platforms.
What Happened to Highguard?
Highguard has undergone a rough journey since it was first unveiled at The Game Awards, presenting itself as a ‘new breed’ of shooter made by former Apex Legends and Titanfall developers.
Following its initial trailer, Wildlight Entertainment remained silent in the month that followed, opting to shadow drop Highguard similarly to Apex Legends.
Wildlight Entertainment had plans to shake up the live-service genre, unveiling a year-one roadmap shortly after launch. However, the online gaming community expressed concerns surrounding the state of the game once it launched, with negative reviews flooding Steam en masse.
As player counts continued to decline, Wildlight Entertainment was quick to act on feedback, bringing a permanent 5v5 addition to the game. Episode 2 was also released in early February, bringing a new playable warden, ranked mode and more to the game.
16 days after Highguard’s global launch, various developers came forward to share that they had been let go from the studio. Shortly afterwards, Wildlight Entertainment announced that it had laid off a significant number of staff, leaving a ‘core group of developers’ to support the game.
Highguard continued to face difficulties as the playercount continued to decline, with concurrent numbers on Steam dropping to just over 1,300 players on February 18th. Furthermore, it was reported that Highguard was supposedly backed by Tencent based on alleged insider information acquired by Game File.
Ultimately, Highguard was unsuccessful in securing a steady and loyal following that could support the game in the long-term, failing to find its footing in a genre filled with popular live-service competitive titles.
