Highguard was a free-to-play hero shooter that suffered one of the fastest and most brutal collapses in recent gaming history, it launched with nearly 100,000 players on Steam, then lost 80% of its audience within hours and ~95% within two weeks, leading to mass layoffs at developer Wildlight and effectively ending the game shortly after launch. Despite heavy hype and industry pedigree, thanks to its controversial announcement as the final reveal at the prestigious annual game awards showcase, players quit during the tutorial and within the first few matches; the game was quickly labelled "Concord 2". The majority of Wildlight's development team was laid off just over two weeks after launch, with only a small core remaining to support the game. The game was criticised as bland, unfun, and technically broken, with a player count that dropped to around 1,057 at its lowest point. Management believed they had a guaranteed hit and dismissed criticism; a culture of "toxic positivity" prevented the team from addressing problems early. The game crammed together fantasy elements, modern firearms, horse riding, crystal mining mini-games, looting, and hero-shooter abilities, creating a disjointed experience with no clear identity. Tiny teams on huge, empty maps led to very little actual combat; most fighting happened in bases, making gameplay feel like a generic "Defuse" mode. The tutorial was unnecessarily complicated and blocked player action for the first three minutes; many quit before the gameplay loop could "click". Shooting felt merely adequate, performance was poor, frame rates dropped, and the game reportedly changed resolution mid-match. The art style was derided as "pastel barf," characters lacked personality, and heroes/cosmetics felt generic and unmemorable. The heavily hyped Game Awards trailer underwhelmed, then marketing stopped entirely, allowing negative narratives to dominate before launch. After the poor launch, developers and journalists blamed players instead of acknowledging flaws, worsening community backlash. Highguard failed because its developers were overconfident, built a game with no clear identity or fun core loop, launched it with serious technical and design problems, and then alienated the community by refusing to accept criticism. (Image Source: Wikipedia)
