Highguard, a new live-service hero shooter from Wildlight Entertainment, launched on January 26, 2026, to mixed reviews and declining player counts. The game, revealed at The Game Awards 2025, has drawn skepticism as another live-service title but received a major update addressing crashes and adding features. Developers are experimenting with a 5v5 playlist to boost engagement.
Highguard debuted on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S as a free-to-play 3v3 hero shooter blending elements of hero shooters and MOBAs, developed by Wildlight Entertainment—a studio comprising former developers from Apex Legends and Titanfall. Unveiled as the final reveal at The Game Awards 2025, the game adopted a shadow-drop strategy similar to Apex Legends, leading to an initial peak of nearly 100,000 concurrent players on Steam. However, within days, active players dropped below 10,000, and Steam reviews sit at a 'Mixed' rating with only 43% positive feedback, criticized for its 3v3 format, map sizes, and perceived similarities to failed titles like Concord.
The launch intensified broader debates on live-service games, with Eurogamer staff questioning if the industry is too harsh on the genre. 'It's easy to decry live service games as awful... but that'd be ignoring the player-minded games out there,' said Connor Makar, citing successes like Warframe and Helldivers 2. Chris Tapsell noted Highguard's independent roots and passionate team, arguing it faces undue backlash: 'there are other live service games that exist... because some talented, creative people wanted to make it.' Dom Peppiat highlighted risks of 'enshitification,' as seen in Destiny 2's shift to vague seasonal updates and paywalled cosmetics.
Responding swiftly, Wildlight released an update on February 1, 2026, reducing crashes by 90%, including fixes for PS5 match-leaving and slow storage loading. New features encompass crouch hold/toggle on all platforms, ADS hold/toggle for PC (with console plans), console FoV up to 110, graphics toggles like Chromatic Aberration and Bloom, DLSS presets, and a laptop FPS cap fix. To counter low counts, an experimental 5v5 playlist was added. Industry support came from 1047 Games, creators of Splitgate, emphasizing iterative improvements. These changes signal Wildlight's commitment to community feedback amid the live-service 'curse' of skepticism.
