Comment from former Highguard developer on the negativity surrounding the game's launch

formerHigh Guardian the developers responded to the negativity surrounding the game, warning how “slandering” games without giving them a chance could leave “innovation on life support”. Wildlight Entertainment's debut effort faced an uphill battle from the start, garnering widespread criticism right after its announcement. Now, High Guardian faces an uncertain future, and one of its former developers has spoken out against the hate it's been getting.

After premiering at the 2025 Game Awards, High Guardian The reveal trailer quickly garnered over 10,000 dislikes on YouTube. Some accused him of paying for his “last” spot on the show, which turned out to be untrue, and many others likened it to the infamously ill-fated hero shooter. Concord. The game didn't fare much better upon release, seeing a wave of negative reviews before many players could spend much time with it, and the title has been struggling to climb out of that pit of negativity ever since.

Highguard is constantly adding a mod that players think should be there at launch

Wildlight Entertainment has been steadily adding a new mode to Highguard that many fans believe should have been in the PvP raid shooter at launch.

Ex-Wildlight Dev Says Highguard Devs Deserved Better Than This” Amid Backlash

Josh Sobel, a technical artist who worked on High Guardianposted a lengthy reflection on the game's reception, urging players to attack the developer and decide the game's fate before its release. Sobel was one of the developers affected High Guardian Recent studio layoffs, but his post focused less on these job cuts and more on the vitriol aimed at High Guardian and more importantly, the team behind it. According to Sobel, some content creators mocked him for making his Twitter account private in response to the backlash, and some even insulted him for listing autism in his bio. In addition to these personal attacks, the developer commented on how the audience decided High Guardian was “dead on arrival” before giving it a fair chance, with many leaving negative reviews without even completing the tutorial.

Sobel did not claim that all feedback is against it High Guardian was unfounded, and he admitted that it was impossible to say whether the game would have been successful if it hadn't faced such negativity. However, he warned that “all products are at the whim of the consumer” and how burying an indie game before giving it a chance to live can hurt future creative decisions. It's a similar sentiment shared by other developers outside of Wildlight as many industry insiders rushed High Guardian's defense to criticize the celebration of failure.

A former Wildlight developer warned how many indie developers can be afraid to try new things in light of the audience's decisions. High Guardianis fate so soon As Sobel points out, this is an irony, as were many of the initial criticisms High Guardian the trailer was about it looking too corporate and uninspired, though several reviews pointed out how the game does a lot of things well that other hero shooters don't. Sobel also highlights how High Guardianwhile it may have real flaws, it was released independently and produced without corporate oversight or any artificial intelligence. With how many big game companies like EA are pushing for greater use of AI, this comment about pushing developers back into the corporate way of doing things feels like a strong warning to me.

Sobel concluded the post by saying that, if nothing else, it was unfair to the developers behind the game to attack them on a personal level or celebrate the downfall of their work. He also congratulated those who remained at Wildlight and highlighted the journalists and creators who did not succumb to the same cycle of negativity because of their involvement. As for the game itself, High Guardian it has received some major updates so it has a chance to regain the favor of fans like other live service titles in the past, but the future cannot be predicted. Whether and how remains to be seen High Guardian can actually recover.