After just six weeks on the market, Highguard officially shut down last week. Now, Sony appears to be issuing refunds to PlayStation users who spent money on in-game microtransactions. 

Highguard was infamously showcased as the final game reveal at The Game Awards in December. The team behind it, made up of former Apex Legends developers, then remained quiet about the game in the lead-up to its launch in late January. While hundreds of thousands of players did ultimately jump into the game when it became available, player numbers dropped off a cliff mere days after the launch.

By the end of February, reports claimed that Tencent had pulled its future funding for the game, leading to a huge round of layoffs at the studio behind the game and putting its year-long conctent roadmap in jeopardy. Ultimately, the heads at Wildlight Entertainment decided that it would no longer be able to support the game and closed off access to the servers on March 12th for all platforms, including PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Now, as spotted by Kotaku, those who had spent money on in-game microtransactions for Highguard are receiving refunds from Sony, a rarity for Sony, which has a much stricter refund policy compared to the likes of Steam.

For now though, it appears players on Steam and Xbox are not getting the same benefit, although it is unclear exactly how many people had paid for microtransactions in the first place. Chances are, the number of those that did would have been in the tens or low hundreds, based on how quickly player numbers for the game dropped off.

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KitGuru Says: Highguard was a flash in the pan. Did any of you try the game while it was still available? Do you think it had potential, or did the studio make the right decision by shutting down the game? 

It has only been a month since Highguard launched but the game's player base has only dwindled since then. Now after a round of layoffs, Wildlight Entertainment has revealed it will be shutting the game down.

The likelihood of the studio fulfilling their ambitious year-long content roadmap already felt slim when most of the development team was let go, leaving just a handful of ‘key developers' left to continue working on the game. Unfortunately since then, Highguard's player count has only continued to drop and as a result, the company is pulling the plug.

Here is the full statement from Wildlight:

“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.

Despite the passion and hard work of our team, we have not been able to build a sustainable player base to support the game long term. Servers will remain online until March 12th. We hope you’ll jump in with us one more time to show your support and get those final great matches in while we still can.

The team is excited to release one final game update to enjoy in the remaining life of the game. We'll be adding a new Warden, a new weapon, account level progression, and skill trees! Full patch notes are coming, and we're targeting tonight or tomorrow morning for patch release.

From all of us at Wildlight, thank you for playing, for supporting us, and for being part of Highguard’s story.”

This news follows a recent report claiming that Tencent, which had initially funded Highguard, had pulled funding due to the game's poor launch performance.

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KitGuru Says: The 2025 Game Awards will now live in infamy thanks to this game.

Well, the moment we all felt was coming has finally arrived. Highguard, the maligned live service raid shooter from former Apex Legends developers at Wildlight Entertainment, is permanently shutting down next week, on March 12, 2026. When the servers go offline, it will have lasted for only 45 days between its January 26 launch and March 12. The news was announced via the game's official X (formerly Twitter) account, with a statement from the studio that begins by saying, "Today we're sharing difficult news. We have made the decision to permanently shut down Highguard on March 12." It continues to […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/highguard-shutting-down-permanently-next-week/

The beginning of a new calendar year in the video game industry has, unfortunately, once again been marked by mass layoffs and studio shutdowns. And while last year was kicked off by a brand new free-to-play game becoming a smash success, this year is marked by the exact opposite. Highguard, the latest free-to-play game on the market from former Apex Legends developers at Wildlight Entertainment, is the first major misfire of 2026. After it was debuted at The Game Awards 2025, a lot was said online about a game that no one had played, while Wildlight kept its head down, […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/highguard-devs-chalk-up-games-failure-to-leadership-hubris-recreate-smash-success-apex-legends/

Highguard has become one of the most talked-about games to kick off 2026, but all for the wrong reasons. After its maligned reveal at The Game Awards, despite its launch drawing 97K concurrent players on Steam alone, those players didn't stick around, and it lost the vast majority of its player base almost immediately. It was review-bombed on Steam, and barely two weeks after it had arrived on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, "most" of the team at developer Wildlight Entertainment had been laid off. After one of the laid-off developers took to X (formerly Twitter) to call out […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/ex-highguard-staff-share-concept-art-and-videos-of-unreleased-in-engine-characters/

Highguard burst on to the scene with very little build-up, but the game did receive criticism from the jump due to its positioning as the final game reveal at The Game Awards this year. Considering Wildlight is a brand-new studio, this caught many off guard but as it turns out, the company did have the backing of a games publishing giant – Tencent. 

According to Game File, Tencent was the behind-the-scenes partner for Wildlight Entertainment, helping to fund their first game, Highguard. Neither company has publicly discussed this financial relationship before, but at least now we have an idea of where the funding for the game came from. This isn't an unusual move for Tencent either, as the publisher has deals in place with many start-up studios in search of a major hit.

Unfortunately, that funding appears to have dried up pretty fast. The official website for the game went down earlier today, something that Wildlight Entertainment says is a low priority on its list of things to fix, as it is primarily focused on creating new content for the game to try and retain and grow its player base.

Two weeks after Highguard's launch, Wildlight Entertainment did also undergo a major cost-cutting initiative, letting go of a large chunk of the studio in favour of a leaner team. This smaller core team of devs will now be in charge of fulfilling the game's massive year-long content roadmap.

KitGuru Says: Have you tried Highguard since the new 5v5 mode was added to the game? 

Initially unveiled at the tail end of the 2025 Game Awards, Highguard is a live-service hero shooter developed by ex-Respawn Entertainment devs at Wildlight Entertainment. Despite a negative response to its initial announcement, the game managed to achieve a peak of nearly 100k concurrents on Steam following its launch last month. Since then however, interest has dwindled significantly, and while the team promised to support the game for the long-term, Highguard’s official website is no longer available – sparking concerns for the game’s future.

As discovered by multiple users, the official ‘playhighguard’ website has been taken offline, with the homepage simply stating: “Highguard – This site is currently unavailable. Please contact support@codethirtytwo.com for assistance.”

As of now, the game itself remains online and playable, however the lack of any communication from Wildlight Entertainment regarding the site’s current status has led some to fear for Highguard's future.

For the uninitiated, Highguard launched to a rather negative reception, in part due to the game itself but also the general sentiment surrounding hero shooters. Despite this, the team promised to offer long-term support, sharing a roadmap which covers the entirety of 2026.

Considering the fact that the studio has already had to lay-off a bunch of developers however, and the recent issues with its official website, Highguard's future is looking quite concerning. Hopefully Wildlight Entertainment addresses this latest issue sooner rather than later.

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KitGuru says: Did you check out Highguard at launch? What did you think? Could the game succeed given enough time and care? Let us know your thoughts down below.