As many probably expected, Highguard‘s development studio, Wildlight Entertainment, is seeing significant layoffs amid the game’s less-than-stellar performance. One developer shared that “most of the team” has been let go, but the studio itself said only a “number” of non-essential developers were affected.
“Today we made an incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members,” the studio said on X. A “core group of developers” will remain at the company to “continue innovating on and supporting the game.” This implies only non-essential workers were let go, perhaps even contractors, while the game is supposed to continue chugging along at the same or slightly lower pace.
This is a little different from what level designer Alex Graner said in a LinkedIn post preceding the official announcement by Wildlight. “Along with most of the team at Wildlight, I was laid off today,” Graner wrote, saying this particular layoff “really stings” as the team has crafted tons of content that will probably never see the light of day (or, at least, won’t be seen through to release by its creators).
From how Graner puts it, Wildlight Entertainment seems to have shed a lot more staff than what its post on X would have us believe. A “number” of non-core developers is in stark contrast to “most of the team.” At any rate, a major restructuring has happened internally, and only time can tell how Highguard will turn out.
Recently, I tried to look at it from a more positive perspective. I thought maybe Wildlight would retreat into the shadows, performing its due diligence and perhaps turning the tide around, much like No Man’s Sky did after falling from 200,000 to 1,000 players (that one is still getting major updates, by the way). However, it turns out I was dead wrong, or maybe this is a necessary move to ensure long-term plans are put into motion.
We’ll see.
