Director Highguard issues a statement following the shutdown announcement

Jason McCord, design director of the controversial shooter Wildlight Entertainment High Guardianreleased a lengthy statement sharing his thoughts on shutting down the game early. Before joining Wildlight in 2021 to become the Design Director for High GuardianMcCord has worked on some of the greatest first-person shooters in gaming history, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Apex Legendsand Titanfall. Unfortunately, the developer is now saying goodbye to his latest project, just 7 weeks after its launch.

After the game's player count dropped sharply and quickly following its release in late January, speculation quickly began to mount about a possible shutdown. High GuardianThe website 's mysteriously went offline, prompting theories that the end was imminent, but the developer quickly dismissed those rumors, saying it was only for maintenance purposes. However, just a few weeks later, these theories have become reality, as recently reported by Wildlight High Guardian will be definitively closed on March 12. Despite more than 2 million people joining the launch, the studio said it failed build a sustainable player base and therefore cannot support the game long term.

Highguard Dev has spoken out after a site outage sparked rumors of a shutdown

Developer Wildlight Entertainment spoke out after the Highguard website went offline, sparking speculation that a shooter could soon follow.

The Headmaster of Highguard issued a new statement

WITH High GuardianAfter the unfortunate shut down just a few days ago, the shooter's design director Jason McCord took to LinkedIn to share his thoughts High Guardian's demise. McCord begins by saying it's a post that “no developer ever wants to make,” before saying that Wildlight has “thrown for the fences in saturated marketing.” The developer says he's proud of the team's attempt to bring something original to the table, “regardless of how it turned out.” He also notes that there were “hardships” the team went through High GuardianThe surprise was revealed at last year's Game Awards, but he didn't elaborate on the statement.

After occupying the coveted last place above the likes Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, Tomb Raider: Catalyst, and Divinity, High Guardian he was thrust into the limelight for all the wrong reasons. Wildlight originally planned to shadow the game at the end of January, but rumors suggest Game Awards host Geoff Keighley enjoyed his hands-on time with High Guardian so much so that he insisted it be revealed during the ceremony. Although Keighley may have believed it would be the next big thing in the shooting space, even reportedly giving High Guardian last place at the Game Awards for free, sparked backlash to close the show over other big reveals that were made at the event.

McCord also acknowledges the “skeleton crew” they stayed to work on High Guardian after being fired at Wildlight Entertainment shortly after the game's launch. Just two weeks after the first Wildlight title was released for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, its dwindling player count caused the studio to lay off a large portion of its staff. However, Wildlight said it will retain a “core group of developers” to continue working on and innovating High Guardian. While the game will no longer be playable starting March 12th, the remaining staff has continued to release plenty of new content over the past few weeks, with the latest update arriving on March 4th, adding account progression, a skill tree, a new Warden, and more.

“Everyone has an opinion as to why the game failed to find an audience,” McCord said in a statement, adding that many are “partially true” while others are “way off the mark.” One theory that has surfaced comes from a former developer who speculated about this High GuardianThe failure was largely due to a strong focus on the competitive scene. Former senior designer for High GuardianAlex Garner, recently criticized the game's 3v3 launch mode, calling the concept “the sweatiest version” of anything like Battle Royale or objective-based modes. The developer says the team leaned “too far into the competitive scene,” which is probably why it turned away so many players.