Layoffs have hit the improvement studio Wildlight Leisure, makers of the not too long ago launched multiplayer shooter Highguard. This comes simply over two weeks after the free-to-play sport’s January 26 launch.
Former senior degree designer Alex Graner posted on LinkedIn, “Sadly, together with most of the group at Wildlight, I used to be laid off as we speak.” Whereas the quantity of individuals who had been laid off has not at present been confirmed, the studio’s LinkedIn page states that its dimension is/was 51-200 staff.
Wildlight’s official X/Twitter account confirmed the layoffs with an announcement studying, “As we speak we made an extremely troublesome determination to half methods with a quantity of our group members whereas protecting a core group of builders to proceed innovating on and supporting the sport.”
On BlueSky, Mat Piscatella from Circana (which tracks sport gross sales and engagement) highlighted, “Highguard debuted in the high 10 in weekly lively customers on US Steam, was high 20 on each US PlayStation and Xbox (Circana Participant Engagement Tracker week ending 1/31/26) and but…” According to SteamDB, Highguard reached a peak concurrent participant depend of 97,249 on PC by way of Steam on launch day and skilled a pointy decline with solely 4,524 gamers two weeks after launch.
Graner additionally stated, “This one actually stings as there was so much of unreleased content material I used to be actually wanting ahead to that I and others designed for Highguard.” Whereas it initially had a 3v3 aggressive mode, a 5v5 mode was carried out simply days after launch as a consequence of participant reception to the small scale of the unique mode. The group revealed a content roadmap on launch day that included updates with new gadgets, modes, and characters every month all through the yr packed into seven separate episodes; it is unclear how the layoffs will have an effect on the studio’s plans as of now, however Widllight says it will proceed to assist the sport.
This story is growing.