Highguard studio lays off most staff just weeks after January 26 launch

by on February 12, 2026

Wildlight Entertainment has laid off a large portion of its workforce just over two weeks after releasing its free-to-play multiplayer shooter, Highguard, on January 26 for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.

The news first came from former senior-level designer Alex Graner, who wrote on LinkedIn, “Unfortunately, along with most of the team at Wildlight, I was laid off today.” He later added, “This one really stings as there was a lot of unreleased content I was really looking forward to that I and others designed for Highguard.” Graner stated that “most of the team” was affected. The exact number of employees let go has not been confirmed, though Wildlight’s LinkedIn page lists the company size as between 51–200 employees.

About two hours after Graner’s post, Wildlight issued a statement on X confirming the layoffs. “Today we made an incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members while keeping a core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game,” the company said. The statement continued: “We’re proud of the team, talent, and the product we’ve created together. We’re also grateful for players who gave the game a shot, and those who continue to be a part of our community.” The reference to a “core group of developers” indicates that work on Highguard will continue with a reduced staff.

Highguard was first revealed during The Game Awards 2025 in December, occupying the end-of-show “one more thing” slot traditionally reserved for the biggest upcoming releases. Its “world premiere” received a lukewarm reaction from viewers. Some fans questioned why it closed the show, while others said the trailer did not clearly explain how the game worked or what distinguished it from other multiplayer shooters.

The development team included industry veterans who had worked on Call of Duty, Apex Legends, and Titanfall. Expectations were high given that background. However, the game’s marketing drew criticism for a lack of promotion in the lead-up to launch. Its release was announced at short notice following a period of silence.

When Highguard launched on January 26, early hands-on press previews were largely positive, with some outlets describing its twist on the shooter genre as refreshing and offering a unique take. On release day, the game reached a peak concurrent player count of 97,249 on PC via Steam, according to SteamDB. It initially attracted just under 100,000 players on PC and about 380,000 viewers on Twitch.

Engagement data from Circana showed strong early placement across platforms. Mat Piscatella from Circana wrote on BlueSky, “Highguard debuted in the top 10 in weekly active users on US Steam, was top 20 on both US PlayStation and Xbox (Circana Player Engagement Tracker week ending 1/31/26) and yet…” Despite those rankings, the player base declined quickly. Two weeks after launch, Steam concurrent users dropped to 4,524. On the day the layoffs were announced, the game reached 3,600 concurrent PC users, and some reports stated the count had fallen to under 3,000, where it sits right now.

Gameplay adjustments followed shortly after release. Highguard initially launched with a 3v3 competitive mode. After criticism of the smaller scale, the studio permanently implemented a 5v5 mode just days later. Throughout this period, Wildlight provided frequent roadmap updates and said it had a year’s worth of content planned. On launch day, the team outlined monthly updates featuring new items, modes, and characters across seven separate episodes. Developers also said the game would receive “more frequent updates” than previous titles they had worked on, such as Apex Legends.

The layoffs come less than three weeks after release and not long after studio head Chad Grenier drew attention by saying “it doesn’t matter” whether the game gets “a thousand people or a hundred million people.”

The situation prompted public reaction from The Game Awards organizer Geoff Keighley, who wrote that the outcome was “an unfortunate, brutal and sad outcome for a game I enjoyed in early play tests.”

Online discussion has compared Highguard to Concord, Sony’s multiplayer shooter that was taken off sale just two weeks after release. Both games are hero shooters that attempted to draw players away from established rivals such as Apex Legends and Overwatch, the latter having launched a huge reboot this month.

Wildlight has stated that it will continue supporting Highguard with a smaller team while keeping a core group of developers in place. This story is developing.