Highguard developer Wildlight Leisure has revealed it initially deliberate to shadow-drop its free-to-play “raid shooter,” till host Geoff Keighley supplied to spotlight it as the ultimate reveal of 2025’s The Sport Awards as a substitute.
In an interview with GameSpot, studio cofounder and sport director Dusty Welch mentioned the plan was all the time for Highguard to be a “quiet shadow-drop.” It is a technique that labored properly for Apex Legends, the favored free-to-play battle royale that most of the Highguard crew at Wildlight beforehand labored on, he mentioned.
That was the plan, a minimum of till Keighley informed Wildlight he cherished the sport and had an concept. He needed to spotlight the free-to-play shooter from an impartial studio as a part of the present, in accordance with Welch.
“He got here into the studio and performed the sport I feel twice and he mentioned, ‘Guys, can I suggest to you, I wish to do one thing that is distinctive…I wish to put it on this spot and sort of do one thing totally different and convey this to the world,'” Welch mentioned. “And that wasn’t our plan, however like, are we going to show down the publicity…Who would flip that down?”
The reveal did not precisely go as deliberate, with many participant reactions to Highguard boiling it all the way down to being simply one other hero shooter. Welch mentioned the crew put collectively a trailer to “entertain” for The Sport Awards however failed to indicate Highguard’s distinctive gameplay loop.
“Look, it did not go in addition to we thought clearly, and I assume a part of that is the spot that it was put in and a part of that is on us, which we personal,” Welch mentioned. “Maybe we made a spot that was extra about entertainting, after which much less concerning the loop. And in order that’s on us. We personal that.”
As for the radio silence from the studio within the wake of Highguard’s reveal, that was additionally all the time a part of the plan, in accordance with Welch. Whether or not the reception at The Sport Awards was constructive or unfavourable, the intent was all the time to go darkish till Highguard was playable.
“We simply stored quiet as a result of we knew the following factor we did needs to be the sport itself, palms on sticks, and also you resolve for your self,” Welch mentioned.
Highguard is offered now on PC, Xbox Sequence X|S, and PlayStation 5, with Wildlight having moreover revealed its 2026 content material plans for the shooter. In GameSpot’s hands-on Highguard preview, we mentioned there may be “one thing thrilling and contemporary concerning the general expertise,” even when it won’t thrive in an “already crowded live-service shooter market.”