Wildlight Entertainment, the studio behind the free-to-play hero shooter Highguard, has been struck by major layoffs just weeks after the game's release. The news broke on February 11, 2026, via a LinkedIn post from senior level designer Alex Graner, who stated that he and "most of the team at Wildlight" had been let go. A spokesperson for the studio later confirmed the cuts, describing it as an "incredibly difficult decision" while assuring players that a "core group of developers" remains to support the game.
Graner's post captured the raw disappointment felt across the team: "Unfortunately, along with most of the team at Wildlight, I was laid off today. This one really stings as there was a lot of unreleased content I was really looking forward to that I and others designed for Highguard. However, I'm excited for my next adventure. If your team or anyone you know needs an experienced Level Designer, hit me up!" He linked his portfolio, highlighting seven years in AAA level design.
Wildlight's statement echoed the sentiment: "Today we made an incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members while keeping a core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game. We're proud of the team, talent, and the product we've created together. We're also grateful for players who gave the game a shot, and those who continue to be a part of our community." Neither specified exact numbers, but Wildlight's LinkedIn lists 51-200 employees, suggesting a substantial hit across roles like gameplay engineers, software engineers, and UI designers.
Highguard debuted in late January after keeping quiet from their surprise reveal at the tail end of The Game Awards 2025. Billed as a live-service hero shooter with squad-based PvP, customizable loadouts, and dynamic maps, it drew immediate comparisons to Sony's Concord, which infamously flopped in 2025 with under 700 peak players before shutdown. Initial reactions ranged from apathy to outright rejection, with many citing hero shooter fatigue amid Overwatch 2, Valorant, and Paladins.
Reviews landed middling: Metacritic scores hover around 70-75 across platforms, praising fluid gunplay and hero synergies but criticizing launch bugs, matchmaking woes, and monetization. Here at Gamefragger we gave it a 7/10. Performance complaints plagued early days being filled with frame drops on consoles, server instability but a flurry of patches stabilized it. Peak Steam concurrents hit ~15k, with steady 5-8k daily averages, per SteamDB.
Post-launch, Wildlight delivered aggressive updates: balance tweaks, new modes, and hero reworks. Yet, player counts dipped, and the layoffs signal deeper troubles and funding shortfalls in a post-Concord market wary of unproven live-service bets. The cuts echo 2025's brutal industry wave: 10k+ jobs lost amid Embracer restructurings, Microsoft cuts, and live-service failures. Wildlight, a newer studio, faced headwinds and trouble launching into oversaturation.
Highguard's core shines in short bursts: 5v5 matches on asymmetric maps, heroes with gadget-heavy kits (e.g., grappling tanks, drone supports), and fast TTK rewarding aim. Recent patches fixed crashes and added ranked queues, hinting at Graner's "unreleased content" that is likely maps, heroes, modes. The core team's mandate: "innovating on and supporting" suggests patches continue, but scope shrinks. No roadmap yet, but Wildlight's gratitude to players underscores community value.
Wildlight will probably give us a clarification on the scale of lay offs and the timeline eventually. For now, Highguard persists in a fragile state of hero shooter purgatory. Have you played it or will you be playing it? Did you see this one coming? Let us know your answers in the comments below.