Multiple developers from Wildlight, maker of the online shooter Highguard, have posted on Linkedin today that they've been laid off, just two weeks after the game's release.
Sound designers, gameplay engineers, tech artists, UI designers and level designers are among those affected. While some have only shared their own personal status, two have said in posts that the layoffs impact "most of the team".
A statement issued by Wildlight says that "a number of our team members" have been let go, while a "core group of developers" works to keep "innovating on and supporting the game".
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.
— Wildlight Entertainment (@WildlightEnt) February 12, 2026
We're proud of the team, talent, and the product we've created together. We're also grateful…
If indeed "most" of the team has been laid off, so soon after release, that doesn't bode well for the future of a game that, despite some weird and very 2026 challenges, by all accounts seemed totally fine.
Nathan Grayson
This news hits the same week as news another game (Riot's 2XKO) laid off developers just days after release, seemingly because of unrealistic expectations from studio leadership. The situation with Wildlight is different, though; the company had self-published Highguard, meaning whatever led to these layoffs, it wasn’t some publisher or giant company demanding numbers go up.
A free-to-play PVP shooter, Highguard had a strong launch--around 100,000 people were playing on Steam on its first day--but couldn't sustain those numbers, in ways that...look, you know what, why am I even talking about those figures, writers always do that when talking about layoffs like this, is there even much point trying to dissect the numbers of a game that took years to make, but where ‘most’ of the team gets laid off just two weeks after it came out? Loads of people are now reportedly out of a job, and whatever reasons people can offer or accept for it, none of it seems sane or sustainable.
