The free-to-play shooter Highguard has formally shut down, and now gamers on PS5 are reporting that refunds are coming in for sure gadgets they might have paid for and might now now not use.
Individuals are saying on Reddit (via Kotaku) that Sony is now giving refunds for microtransaction purchases. Some stated they purchased microtransactions particularly as a result of they loved Highguard and needed to assist the builders. “I truthfully did not take care of a refund,” one particular person stated.
Some have theorized that Wildlight providing refunds for Highguard gamers on PS5 is likely to be tied to some sort of mandated coverage from Sony. It is unclear if refunds will exit on Xbox or PC.
GameSpot requested Wildlight concerning the refund scenario again when Highguard’s shutdown was introduced. The developer by no means responded, nevertheless.
Past the refund information, Wildlight’s studio web page on LinkedIn has vanished, whereas the developer’s web site has gone offline utterly. The Highguard game-specific web site is gone as nicely. In February, Wildlight laid off the vast majority of its employees, with solely a skeleton crew remaining to launch the sport’s last replace.
There have been many theories about why Highguard didn’t succeed. One former developer stated the detrimental on-line discourse about Highguard performed a job, however was not the principle purpose. One other Highguard developer stated the sport struggled as a result of it was too “sweaty” and wasn’t interesting sufficient to informal gamers. A report stated “hubris” additionally performed an element.
It has come to mild that Tencent was one of many corporations that funded Wildlight and Highguard, and that the Chinese language web big pulled funding after the sport’s launch.
After Highguard’s shutdown was introduced, Wildlight’s Chad Grenier stated the sport was merely not bringing in sufficient income to pay for ongoing improvement. “Not sufficient income to maintain anybody employed to work on it, sadly,” he stated.
All instructed, Highguard was on-line and playable for 45 days.