Highguard funding pulled with less than 20 developers still working on it

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Just weeks after its release, the online shooter Highguard has lost funding from Tencent. This has resulted in significant layoffs, leaving fewer than 20 developers still working on the game.

Bloomberg reports that the studio let go of almost all of its 100 employees in February because the game wasn’t keeping enough players engaged. This happened after the game failed to meet goals set by its financial supporter, Tencent.

The new free-to-play shooter game had a strong start on January 26th, reaching almost 100,000 players on Steam. However, it quickly lost popularity, and within a week, about 90% of those initial players had stopped playing.

Highguard’s team gutted as player count plummets

Just over two weeks after starting, Wildlight announced to its team on February 11th that they had run out of funding and would be letting most employees go with a limited severance package.

Highguard was released a month ago. Since then, the number of players playing simultaneously on Steam has decreased to a recent low of 254.

— TopMob (@TopMob) February 26, 2026

Management said that Tencent had pulled its financial backing, according to Bloomberg’s sources.

Wildlight was created in 2021 by developers who previously worked at Respawn Entertainment, the creators of games like Apex Legends and Titanfall. These developers reportedly left because they felt they hadn’t received fair compensation for the massive success of Apex Legends, which earned EA over $3 billion.

Wildlight Entertainment encouraged developers to participate by offering them a share of the profits, meaning everyone would benefit financially if Highguard became successful.

Even with the addition of a 5v5 game type and regular updates, Highguard hasn’t been able to attract players. This week, the game hit a low of just 250 concurrent players on Steam.

When the game first came out, it received a lot of criticism because it lacked features and didn’t give players a strong incentive to keep playing. However, a former developer suggested that negative reactions were partly fueled by “gamer culture,” with some players leaving harsh reviews even before finishing the game’s introductory tutorial.

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2026-02-27 16:19