The Apex Legends’ veterans behind new shooter Highguard tell GameCentral about the impact of its negative reception, and how it was originally going to be a surprise shadow drop.
Control: Resonant, Tomb Raider, and Divinity were the big headliners at last year’s The Game Awards, but none of those where what closed the show.
That honour went to Highguard, a free-to-play fantasy shooter from new studio Wildlight Entertainment. The team is comprised of key developers behind Apex Legends and Titanfall, but despite their sparkling CV, the game’s reveal at the climax of the show – a spot usually reserved for known quantities – led to a disappointed backlash.
At the time of writing, the debut trailer has amassed 17,000 dislikes on YouTube, versus 1,800 likes. YouTube ratios are hardly a game’s death knell, but the prevailing sentiment in online circles was overtly negative, with many comparing it unfavourably to Concord, which was shut down after two weeks.
It turns out, Highguard could have avoided this backlash if they stuck to the original plan for its release. The live service shooter was originally going to launch on this same exact release date (today, January 26), but as a surprise shadow drop, much like Apex Legends in 2019.
Speaking to GameCentral, Wildlight Entertainment co-founder and CEO, Dusty Welch, said: ‘When Chad [Grenier] and I started the company, we didn’t know what we were going to make – we knew we were going to make a shooter and everything else – but the plan was always, let’s do a shadow drop like we did with Apex Legends.
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‘That was wildly successful, when we were both running the franchise. And we are independent with Chad and I leading the company, there’s no big publisher sitting there was a pile of cash, so you have to be really strategic with your funds.’
Most of these funds, naturally, went into the game and hiring developers, with around 60 staff members on the 100-man team consisting of former Apex devs. The initial plan for Highguard’s launch, however, changed after a meeting with The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley.
‘That was always the plan and, pretty far into 2025, Geoff [Keighley] came in, and we’ve known Geoff for quite some time,’ Welch added. ‘He came into the studio, played the game, and he was super impressed. And he knows us, and what the team is capable of doing, and Geoff proposed putting the game in a spot at the The Game Awards.
‘He wanted to do something that I think in his words, was unique and maybe a little bit risky, for him, which was take an indie studio with an unannounced multiplayer PvP and put it in this big show.’
As an unknown studio, Welch and the team saw the chance to be featured on the biggest show in the gaming industry as an ‘honour’. In hindsight, however, they believe the trailer they created for the show, along with its position in the closing slot, worked against them.
‘We put the trailer together pretty quickly, and ultimately at maybe the wrong slot [in the show],’ Welch added. ‘And combined with… we a made a trailer to entertain millions of viewers at home, and not to explain what the core loop was. So that’s on us, we own that. I guess we should have made a different trailer.’
The negative feedback, however, didn’t deter their launch plans. ‘The reception was, as you know, not what you would hope it would be for a new studio,’ Welch said. ‘So we took it to heart, we stayed quiet which was always the plan. This week was always planned to be the event you’re sitting here at today, and next week was always planned to be the launch, so we stayed quiet and true to our plan.
‘But we listened, we took to heart what fans, players, and people were saying online. We didn’t put our heads in the sand, we listened to all that stuff. And we knew, the next thing we did, the next thing we said, it’d better be the game. We believe in our team, we believe in ourselves. We really love the game that we’ve made, and so let’s just let players learn that on their own by putting it into their hands. So that’s what we’ve chosen to do.
‘The team, they’re experienced, they’re big boys and girls, they’re extremely resilient. We would have loved a different reception, but if anything, it’s probably made us better, more introspective, and we are ready to finally engage with our community. It’s nice to be able to finally talk.’
Asked whether they believe Highguard could have landed with the same impact as Apex Legends in 2019 if it was shadow-dropped, Welch knows they’re working against a stronger tide as a smaller studio.
‘It probably would take longer, right?’ he replied. ‘We’re not Respawn. You don’t have EA behind you, so you wouldn’t have all that might and muscle and marketing power. We still have a really incredible game, it would just go out a little bit quieter.’
Our full chat with the Wildlight Entertainment team will be published later this week, where we cover Highguard’s threshold for success, the art of the mount, and the shooter landscape at large.
Highguard is available to play now for free across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
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