Wildlight Entertainment lays off "most of" Highguard team weeks after launch

Wildlight Entertainment has confirmed that the team behind the free-to-play shooter Highguard has been affected by job cuts just a few weeks after the game launched to poor reviews.

The details:

• As first announced by former senior-level designer Alex Graner and now confirmed by Wildlight, the studio has laid off an unspecified number of employees following the launch of its latest title, Highguard, on January 26. While the developer did not reveal the extent of the layoffs, Graner claimed that “most of the team” was affected and that the former employees had created a “lot of unreleased content” for the game.
• In its announcement, Wildlight confirmed that neither the studio nor the game will be shut down, with it retaining a “core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game.” “We're proud of the team, the talent, and the product we've created together,” it wrote. “We're also grateful for players who gave the game a shot and those who continue to be a part of our community.”

• Despite launching to a peak of 97,249 concurrent players on Steam alone, Highguard was met with a generally mixed to negative reception, with many criticisms leveled at its gameplay loop. Despite the studio’s attempts at addressing feedback, including adding a 5v5 mode in response to its standard 3v3 format being branded as “boring,” Highguard’s concurrent player count now sits at less than five figures.