Wildlight Entertainment has confirmed that its high-profile but troubled free-to-play live-service shooter “Highguard” is shutting down on March 12th, just over six weeks after its high-profile launch.
The game’s downfall truly began three months ago when it was the final trailer reveal at The Game Awards in December, a slot in which Naughty Dog’s “Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet” made a big splash in 2024 and Capcom’s “Monster Hunter Wilds” did in 2023.
That trailer reveal didn’t go down well, but the game soldiered on and launched on January 26th to a strong start. Those numbers, however, quickly plummeted with Wildlight laying off most of its development team the following month.
A social media post (via VGC) says that while more than two million players have tried out Highguard’s world, the game hasn’t been able to attract enough players to sustain long-term development.
As a result, a final update will be released this week, with the servers then going offline on March 12th. They add: “From all of us at Wildlight, thank you for playing, for supporting us, and for being part of Highguard’s story.”
The game’s failure joins a number of high-profile live service game failures in recent years, including “Concord,” “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League,” “Skull & Bones,” “Redfall,” “Anthem,” “Foamstars,” and “Babylon’s Fall”. A lot of eyes are now on Bungie’s “Marathon” which launches this week and whether it will survive the live service curse.
