The tumultuous road of Highguard is officially nearing its end, as Wildlight Entertainment just announced the permanent shut down of the multiplayer hero shooter. As of March 12, servers will go offline forever and the game as we know it will be dead. It marks the end of the line for one of the most discussed and controversial games in recent memory, and it’s an all too common ending we’re seeing for live service games across the industry.
Despite Wildlight announcing Highguard‘s closure, they also revealed a final game update for players to enjoy and savour their last moments in the world of Highguard. The new content drop will add a new Warden, a new weapon, an account level progression system and skill trees. The patch is expected to go live either tonight or later tomorrow morning according to Wildlight’s shut down announcement.
Highguard had over 2 million players jump in since it launched back on 26 January, less than two months ago, following its devastating The Game Awards reveal. The peculiar silence during its rollout generated both immense awareness but also criticism, and this combined with a gameplay formula that many felt was already an overused and exhausted one on arrival was clearly a start that few games could recover from.
The disaster that followed Highguard with staggeringly low player counts and massive layoffs further damaged their reputation. Many felt the writing on the wall was already clear when the official website for the game was taken offline, with the developers saying at the time that restoration of the site was low priority due to the “reputational damage” that was already done.
The remaining team over at Wildlight attribute the closure to them being unable to “build a sustainable player base to support the game long term”, which is an essential foundation for any game within the live service genre. As games that compete for player attention, engagement and spending, Highguard was entering a metaphorical ocean full of sharks with little to differentiate it from the rest. It was an eventful road, but Highguard‘s journey is finally over.
