The writing had been on the wall from around a week after launch, but Highguard is to close down next week following a disastrous launch.
Announced as the ‘one final thing’ at The Game Awards 2025 by host Geoff Keighley, the game was immediately panned by the internet gaming community for being generic in style and an unwanted entry to the outdated hero shooter genre.
But perhaps the most negative for the game, was that it was the ‘one final thing’ from former Titanfall developers, that was not Titanfall 3. Typically the end of the show is reserved for a highly anticipated reveal, or for a new AAA single player title from a well-known developer.
At launch, Highguard almost reached 100,000 players on Steam, with many more untracked numbers on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Though, that number plummeted rapidly in the days and weeks since, leading Wildlight to sever much of the development team. From this point, the end was inevitable and the game – that has a Steam 24-hour peak of <500 players – will close its servers in 8 days.
In a statement, the studio said “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.”
Wildlight announced there will be one final update for Highguard which adds “a new Warden, a new weapon, account level progression, and skill trees”.
You’ve now got just over a week to try the new update and complete Highguard’s achievement / trophy list before it’s gone forever. It’s not an overly complicated or time intensive list to get through, but you may face difficulties in frequently getting enough players in your server to complete the mandated number of matches.
The closure of the server is the harsh reality of releasing an unknown live service shooter into the modern gaming space, with juggernauts like Battlefield, Call of Duty and Arc Raiders seemingly immovable from their podium. In the days ahead, Bungie’s own extraction shooter, Marathon will launch as a new take on the genre. A positively received server slam will hopefully have attracted enough players to try the game at launch.
Did you give Highguard a chance? What other multiplayer games do you think are at risk? Let us know in the comments below or join the Gamer Social Club Discord to chat about all your favourite shooters.
