Wildlight Entertainment is a new studio made up of former developers from Respawn Entertainment, and at The Game Awards they announced their first game from the creatives behind Apex Legends and Titanfall: the new hero-shooter Highguard. The announcement was given the highly coveted final trailer slot to close out the show, and it came with a release date that was extremely close, January 26 of 2026. We are now just one week away from the alleged launch of Highguard, and the complete silence from the team since the reveal of the game is becoming a deafening one.
The response to Highguard was rough, as critics lamented many of its foundational choices, from aesthetics to setting and even the genre. This was a backlash that was so loud it was hard for anyone to ignore, with even casual gamers likely having some level of exposure on social media to the Highguard reveal reaction. Whilst many expected some kind of response from the studio, especially given the game being so close to launch, it’s surprising to see the developers instead opting to remain silent.
Since its December 12 reveal, Highguard‘s official social media channels have been completely silent. It’s extraordinarily unusual to not promote a game before its release, and the lack of promotion is apparent through their social media numbers. With a little under 7,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter), and only 1,500 subscribers on their official YouTube channel, Highguard is not building an audience to support it in time for its release.
The Steam page still shows a January 26 release date, but there are no pre-order options and the description is remarkably short and barren for a game that’s a mere week away. We’ll be sure to report further on Highguard when, or if, it launches next week on January 26, so check back often to GameObserver for more!
