Just Two Months After Launch, Highguard Will Shut Down Its Servers

This might not surprise any of you, but that doesn't make it any less unfortunate: Highguard will shut down its servers on March 12th, less than two months since its launch at the end of January. This follows layoffs, exceptionally low player counts, and an overall difficult launch process that never went ideally. There are quite a few similarities between Highguard and Concord, which also shut down shortly after launch.

In an official statement from Wildlight Entertainment, the game's developer, they said: "Despite the passion and hard work from our team, we were unable to reach a sustainable player base to support the game long-term. The servers will remain active until March 12th. We hope you'll join us one last time to show your support and enjoy some final wonderful games while you can." All this comes after Highguard was one of the games that received some of the best exposure time during The Game Awards ceremony, but despite that, it failed to gain traction.

The game officially launched on January 26th of this year and received mostly negative reviews on Steam right from the start. The development team, for their part, continued working and trying to push updates, including additional game modes, until the decision to downsize the team on February 11th, just two weeks after launch. And now, after one more month, the game will shut down completely. Even the financial investment from Tencent wasn't enough, after the company itself decided to withdraw its financial backing following the lukewarm reviews and the game's failure to meet relevant criteria. As mentioned, Highguard's story is very reminiscent of Concord's—in its launch, in the fact that it failed to attract a player base, the fact that both sit in more or less the same game genre, and finally, both shutting down shortly after launch.