(*3*)
Simply two months in the past at The Recreation Awards, host Geoff Keighley gave a show-closing preview to the raid shooter Highguard. However after struggling out of the gate, Highguard developer Wildlight was hit by huge layoffs, and a few are pointing the finger at Keighley for creating excessive expectations that the dev crew could not stay as much as. Nonetheless, not less than one outstanding determine within the trade does not consider Keighley ought to shoulder the blame for any of this mess.
“The Highguard layoffs, like many others, are a tragic reminder of the financial instability of an trade that asks the world, however guarantees little,” wrote Baldur’s Gate 3 director of publishing, Michael Douse on X. “That mentioned, blaming one man for exhibiting a trailer on his telly present is a sophomoric take that exhibits little understanding of trade!”
The Highguard layoffs, like many others, are a tragic reminder of the financial instability of an trade that asks the world however guarantees little. That mentioned, blaming one man for exhibiting a trailer on his telly present is a sophomoric take that exhibits little understanding of trade!
— Very AFK (@Cromwelp) February 12, 2026
“If something, [Keighley] gave Highguard the perfect likelihood it may have,” added Essential Hits founder Eric Arraché. “The issue was that the sport wasn’t that good (map too huge for 3v3) and I consider it had some server issues on PC on day one. Except for that, firms appear to be pulling out a lot sooner for the reason that Harmony fiasco.”
Josh Sobel, a lead tech artist who was laid off from Wildlight this week, famous that “it was all downhill from there,” after The Recreation Awards reveal. Based on Sobel, that prime spot led to a backlash towards the sport. Keighley was even accused of proudly owning a stake within the recreation, which he laughed off and denied. Many of the gaming firms paid upwards of $1 million for an advert throughout The Recreation Awards, and Keighley reportedly gave Wildlight its spot without spending a dime.
Keighley subsequently acknowledged the layoffs, and referred to as it “An unlucky, brutal and unhappy final result for a recreation I loved in early play assessments.”
A big a part of the Wildlight Leisure crew that labored on @PlayHighguard has been laid off, simply 16 days after launch.
An unlucky, brutal and unhappy final result for a recreation I loved in early play assessments. pic.twitter.com/6KFLANVg2C— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) February 12, 2026
It is presently unknown if the remaining builders at Wildlight will be capable of ship every part promised in Highguard’s content material calendar for 2026.