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That was quick: Highguard is shutting down [1]

['Grant St. Clair']

Date: 2026-03-09  

If you didn't see this coming, you probably need to get your eyes checked. Highguard, the painfully generic hero shooter that made waves purely because of how its initial reveal at The Game Awards seemed almost purpose-engineered to generate as negative of a reaction as possible, is now in hospice.

Given how oversaturated the genre is, however, some slightly more optimistic gamers thought that the extra eyes on the project might help Highguard rather than hinder it. Unfortunately, they were wrong. Amid dropping player counts and turmoil at developer Wildlight, Highguard will officially be shutting down this March, a mere 45 days after launch.

In a recent announcement, Wildlight made the news official:

Today we're sharing difficult news. We have made the decision to permanently shut down Highguard on March 12. Since launch, more than 2 million players stepped into Highguard's world. You shared feedback, created content, and many believed in what we were building. For that, we are deeply grateful. Despite the passion and hard work of our team, we have not been able to build a sustainable player base to support the game long term. Servers will remain online until March 12th. We hope you'll jump in with us one more time to show your support and get those final great matches in while we still can. The team is excited to release one final game update to enjoy in the remaining life of the game. We'll be adding a new Warden, a new weapon, account level progression, and skill trees! Full patch notes are coming, and we're targeting tonight or tomorrow morning for patch release. From all of us at Wildlight, thank you for playing, for supporting us, and for being part of Highguard's story.

Unfortunately, this was kind of the only way anyone predicted the saga of Highguard would end. The (remaining) developers at Wildlight can take solace in just one thing, however: they still made it longer than Concord. I have a sneaking suspicion that many games in the near future will be able to have their lifespans measured in Concords as the triple-A industry hurtles closer and closer to what seems like an inevitable crash.

[END]
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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2026/03/09/that-was-quick-highguard-is-shutting-down.html

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