On December 11, 2025, Highguard was revealed at The Recreation Awards. A PvP “raid shooter” from a number of the creators behind Apex Legends and Titanfall, Highguard was admittedly considerably of a shock because the final reveal of Geoff Keighley’s present in December, which has usually been reserved for highly-anticipated, single-player video games similar to Naughty Canine’s subsequent mission, Intergalactic, or the subsequent Mass Impact. Quite than a big-budget RPG, Highguard’s trailer displayed a multiplayer recreation rooted in a mixture of fantasy and sci-fi, with SMG-wielding heroes driving horses into battle and magical spears hurled into grounded enemies by floating characters. “A brand new breed of shooter” flashed throughout the display as its Overwatch-by-way-of-Harmony motion performed out.
The net response to this trailer has not been sort. Sort “Highguard” into YouTube, and also you’ll be virtually completely met with movies headlined one thing alongside the traces of “This Recreation is Cooked”, “It’s Worse Than We Thought!”, and “What Occurred?”. What’s occurred is that it hasn’t even been launched but. And so I’m right here to state what I believed could be apparent: we should always really play video games earlier than we definitively resolve in the event that they’re good or dangerous.
I perceive not being into the look of a recreation, however among the many gaming neighborhood, it more and more feels as if there’s now virtually an underlying want for brand new releases to be dangerous in the event that they’re not precisely what we would like from one. I can’t assist however really feel this angle is totally unhelpful in the long term, engineered with social media and ragebait content material algorithms in thoughts moderately than any type of considerate evaluation of what’s on present. Such willingness to dunk on a recreation for which we solely have a single trailer and 10 screenshots shows a whole misunderstanding of (or intentional opposition to) “a rising tide lifts all boats” mentality in the case of recreation growth. Extra profitable video games are, finally, good for everybody, even when this particular one doesn’t meet your preferences.
After all, it isn’t simply the gameplay fuelling this hearth, however the relative lack of noise from developer Wildlight Leisure following its reveal. Greater than a month later, this teaser stays the one video on the sport’s official YouTube channel which, on the time of writing, nonetheless solely has 1,610 subscribers — considerably odd for a recreation that acquired such a prized reveal slot on gaming’s greatest night time of the 12 months (a slot that, notably, the studio did not pay for – Geoff Keighley merely actually preferred the mission much more than the broader gaming sphere appears to.) An identical state of affairs will be seen on social media, the place Highguard’s official X account is adopted by simply over 7,000 folks and hasn’t posted since that December 12 announcement date. There aren’t any particulars on characters, skills, or maps. There’s not even an evidence of how this “new breed” of PvP works, which is unhelpful contemplating “raid shooter” is just not a generally recognised style. Highguard itself could properly not be dangerous, however the advertising selling it definitely could possibly be accused of being sub-par.
Maybe the event workforce is aiming to recapture lightning in a bottle and recreate the overwhelmingly profitable shadow drop that Apex Legends benefited from. Maybe, when it arrives, we’ll all be hooked – afterall, it’s directed by Chad Grenier, one of many authentic Name of Obligation designers whose credit embody the primary two Fashionable Warfare video games, each Titanfalls, and Apex Legends, and he’s joined by a number of different veterans of vastly profitable video games. However prior success is just not a assured key to victory, and sure, maybe the ultimate product will find yourself being underwhelming. However even understanding that, it is disheartening to see that this failure has already been presumed by many on-line; a predetermined destiny, if you’ll.
It’s possible you’ll properly really feel that Highguard’s motion doesn’t seem like your cup of tea from the lower than two minutes you’ve seen of it, and for all I do know, as soon as it launches on January 26, it might properly battle to discover a substantial viewers. Nevertheless it’s this rapid and full writing off of a recreation that irks me considerably.
I realise I’m largely swimming towards a tide of minds which were made up right here. We all know that, on the web in 2026, it’s a lot simpler to tear one thing down than reinforce it with optimism. However I can’t assist however really feel that most of the identical folks gleefully rubbing their fingers collectively at what appears like one other underwhelming recreation of their eyes, would be the identical bemoaning the truth that the video games trade is in a tough spot the place layoffs and studio closures seemingly occur on a weekly foundation, placing the creatives they admire out of labor. If nobody is trying to make new experiences and not less than attempt to ship on the promise of a “new breed of shooter”, then we’re in a grim place, certainly.
Wanting additional forward, Marathon will lastly launch in March 2026. It’s been a rocky highway for developer Bungie to date, with final 12 months being filled with beta exams that have been met with little enthusiasm, and plagiarism allegations not serving to the studio’s fame in any respect. However to its credit score, Bungie has been very quiet these previous few months, working laborious on a brand new model of the sport that takes into consideration a lot of the suggestions acquired from its burgeoning neighborhood. I, for one, am excited for it, regardless of not being overly within the extraction shooter style. Whereas many could already see (or, certainly, need to see) the writing on the wall amid hasty comparisons to Sony’s earlier live-service shooter, Harmony, I stay hopeful, largely resulting from believing within the shooter pedigree the Future developer is bringing to the mission, very similar to the ex-Titanfall and Apex Legends workforce is carrying ahead to Highguard.
Once more, I’m in no way satisfied that both of those video games can be blockbuster hits, nor assure that they’ll be wonderful shooters in their very own proper, however I not less than need to give them an opportunity. As a result of if we’re not getting enthusiastic about video games, what are we even doing right here? “By no means choose a e book by its cowl” is an age-old phrase, however one which appears as pertinent as ever. Perhaps in 2026, it ought to be up to date to “By no means choose a recreation by its preliminary teaser and lack of selling beats operating as much as launch”. A mouthful, certain, however we’ll by no means uncover the subsequent nice recreation if we’ve endeavoured to kill it earlier than it even arrives.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can primarily be discovered skulking round open world video games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing on the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Observe him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.