Highguard, the free-to-play PvP raid shooter introduced at The Recreation Awards final 12 months and launched just for most of its builders to be laid off simply weeks after launch, might have failed as a result of it “leaned too far into the aggressive scene.”
That’s in line with former Wildlight developer and stage designer Alex Graner, who instructed Quad Damage Podcast that builders “do not attempt to create one thing that does not work out,” all through growth, Wildlight “actually leaned into the aggressive aspect of it, and that was all the time one of my largest fears as a participant.”
“I can solely converse to my aspect of it as a stage designer, however once I joined [Wildlight], it was making an attempt to determine this new, formidable sport, and this group is all the time pushing the boundaries,” Graner mentioned, as transcribed by PCGN, through Eurogamer. “You do not attempt to create one thing that does not work out, but it surely occurs, sadly. All through growth, we actually leaned into the aggressive aspect of it, and that was all the time one of my largest fears as a participant.”
“3v3 duos is all the time the sweatiest model of something like battle royale, goal modes, wingman, you already know it, you identify it. It requires such a excessive depth of communication along with your group, and group play, that it would not go away a lot room for casualness. I believe that was the largest factor that turned a lot of gamers off Highguard,” he added.
The challenge, Graner believes, is that Highguard had “all these completely different guidelines and phases,” which made it tough for gamers who do not have already got a group to play with, and notably difficult for brand new gamers.
“It is like, ‘Oh, you need to loot, now we have got to chase this goal, now we’ve to plant this goal, now it is extra time… It has all these guidelines, which I believe works at a actually excessive stage, however when gamers are first coming in it is a lot to know,” Graner defined. “On high of all that, as a result of it was 3v3, that sort of sport simply requires high-skill motion and capturing, which is already a fairly excessive [bar to] entry as effectively. So if you happen to simply have a few dangerous video games or your teammates aren’t sticking collectively, you are simply going to get rolled, and it’s totally laborious to 1v2 in our sport.
“It is all designed to be a team-based shooter. I believe that was the largest factor. Folks simply type of turned it off as a result of they did not have the group.”
One other former developer additionally just lately spoke out about the disastrous announcement and launch, saying the sport, and by extension its group, “become a joke from minute one, largely attributable to false assumptions about a million-dollar advert placement.” A quantity of high-profile online game builders have additionally defended Highguard following the on-line backlash throughout the sport’s launch.
We just lately discovered that Highguard was apparently financially backed by Tencent, which seemingly pulled funding simply a couple of weeks after it launched. It reportedly has fewer than 20 builders engaged on it. Highguard hit a peak of 97,249 concurrent gamers when it launched on Steam. Now, it has simply 105 on Valve’s platform.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, in addition to a critic, columnist, and marketing consultant with 15+ years expertise working with some of the world’s largest gaming websites and publications. She’s additionally a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually Excessive Chaos. Discover her at BlueSky.