Just 37 days after its launch, "Highguard"—which had previously received investment from Tencent—has announced it will shut down its servers.

Today (March 4), the FPS game *Highguard*, which closed out the TGA 2025 ceremony, announced that it will officially shut down on March 12.

According to the developers, over 2 million players have entered the world of *Highguard* since its launch. Despite the team’s passion and hard work, they have been unable to build a player base large enough to sustain the game’s long-term operation. The game servers will officially shut down on March 12, following which a final update will be released.

Developed by Wildlight Studios, *Highguard* officially launched on Steam on January 27. On its first day, peak concurrent players approached 100,000, but within two days, that number had dropped to around 10,000, and by the end of the first month, it had fallen to just 700.It is worth noting that Wildlight Studios was co-founded by Welch and several other veteran Respawn employees, with most of the team hailing from Respawn Entertainment—the studio behind the battle royale game *Apex*. They had hoped to replicate their previous success with *Highguard*. However, due to various factors, this controversial game ultimately came to an abrupt end.

In fact, as early as late February, Bloomberg had interviewed ten former employees of Wildlight Studios, and signs of this were already beginning to emerge at that time.Bloomberg reported that *Highguard* was originally intended to avoid the crowded battle royale market and was therefore designed as a *Rust*-style multiplayer survival game. However, after two years of development, the team realized that the game’s high degree of freedom conflicted with their goal of creating a highly competitive experience. After retaining some of the original gameplay mechanics, *Highguard* underwent a last-minute pivot to become a “raiding shooter,” streamlining many survival elements into a faster, more competitive experience.

However, this last-minute change led many players to find the game experience unfriendly after launch. The biggest issues were the overly large maps and overly complicated mechanics; without communication, playing with other players was nothing short of a disaster.

Beyond the gameplay experience, Wildlight Studios has also been plagued by numerous critical issues. While the game’s grand finale appearance at the TGA provided ample exposure, it also sparked significant controversy. In particular, the debut trailer failed to capture much interest, leading many players to fear it might become the next *Star Wars: Agents of the First Order*. As a result, *Highguard* found itself embroiled in a media storm even before its release, and the controversy has continued to escalate since the game’s launch.

Bloomberg specifically noted that just one week after its release, *Highguard* had already lost 90% of its players. At an all-hands meeting on February 11, the company informed employees that it had run out of funds and that the 100-person team would be downsized to fewer than 20 people.According to sources familiar with the matter, although it was not explicitly stated, management indicated that Tencent, which had previously invested in the studio, had withdrawn its funding. However, these former employees who were interviewed also noted that Tencent’s willingness to invest was contingent on *Highguard* meeting certain metrics, such as retention rates, but in reality, the team had failed to even come close to those targets.

They attributed the problem to the company’s management’s “arrogance,” as they believed they could replicate their previous success with *APEX*, even though the entire gaming market had undergone dramatic changes since then.