Highguard’s developer allegedly terminates ‘the majority’ of its employees just more than two weeks following the launch

Highguard, a new multiplayer shooter from developers with experience on titles like Apex Legends and Call of Duty, debuted just over two weeks ago, but Wildlight Entertainment is already implementing layoffs at the studio, as per messages from affected personnel on LinkedIn. Former Wildlight level designer Alex Graner announced that “the majority of the staff at Wildlight” was let go today, a claim supported by former lead tech artist Josh Sobel.

”Today we made an extremely tough choice to part ways with several team members while retaining a core group of developers to keep innovating and supporting the game,” Wildlight stated. “We’re proud of the team, skill, and product we’ve built together. We’re also thankful for players who gave the game a chance, and those who continue to be part of our community.”

Highguard was initially revealed as the last showcase at The Game Awards in December with an eye-catching reveal trailer announcing a January 26th launch date. The game allegedly reached close to 100,000 concurrent players on Steam at launch, yet it holds a “Mixed” rating on the platform and has just over 2,400 concurrent players as of this moment, according to SteamDB. The game premiered with three-player teams, but soon after, Wildlight introduced a limited time 5v5 mode that it made permanent a few days later.

This week, Riot Games also enacted layoffs on a significant live service project, dismissing around 80 employees from its recently released 2XKO fighting game based in the League of Legends universe.

Update, February 11th: Included statement from Wildlight.