Highguard is shutting down on March 12 due to unsustainable player base

Developer Wildlight Entertainment has announced that the free-to-play hero shooter Highguard will be permanently shutting down on March 12, 2026, just 45 days after its launch on January 26, stating that it was unable to build a sustainable player base to support the game long-term.

The details:

• As announced by Wildlight Entertainment on X, Highguard will go offline permanently on March 12. The studio thanked players for their support but acknowledged that the game failed to attract a sustainable audience, with a rapid decline in player numbers shortly after its release.
• Ahead of the shutdown, Wildlight has confirmed that it will add new content to the game that it had been working on prior to the announcement, including a new Warden, a new weapon, account level progression, and skill trees. This update will be available this week for all players.
• Despite debuting with a peak of 97,249 concurrent players on Steam alone, interest in Highguard rapidly declined and averaged fewer than 500 concurrent players in recent weeks. The developer attempted to revive interest in the game by addressing player complaints with new content and modes, but following layoffs that affected most of its employees, less than 20 staff members were working on the title.