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| A screengrab of players riding on mounts in Highguard |
The video game industry is no stranger to high-profile disasters, but few have been as swift and spectacular as the collapse of Concord. Firewalk Studios’ multiplayer hero shooter arrived with a $40 price tag and was dead on arrival, shuttering just two weeks after launch and becoming a cautionary tale for misguided live-service ambitions. Now, mere months later, a new contender has emerged, not from an unknown studio, but from a pedigreed team—and its early stumble is raising alarming déjà vu.
On January 26th, Highguard, the first project from Wildlight Entertainment (founded by veterans from Apex Legends and Titanfall), launched worldwide on Steam. Its reveal was privileged: the final "one more thing" slot at The Game Awards, presented by host Geoff Keighley himself. Keighley promised the team would "push the shooter genre forward." In a now-notorious tweet just before launch, he even posted a meme stating, “in 48 hours, I’ll be accepting your apologies,” a confident jab at the skeptics.
Forty-eight hours later, it appears the apologies may not be forthcoming.
A Launch Weekend in Freefall
Highguard is a free-to-play, 3v3 hero shooter with MOBA-like elements. Its free price point gave it an immediate advantage over the paid Concord, and initial numbers seemed promising with a peak of over 97,000 concurrent players. However, the bottom quickly fell out. At the time of writing, its 24-hour peak has cratered to just 12,748, with the current live player count hovering around a paltry 7,195.
To put this in perspective, the recent Marvel Rivals—another free-to-play hero shooter—achieved an all-time peak of 644,269 and still maintains a robust 80,000-player base. Highguard’s retention rate, even compared to Marvel Rivals' post-launch cooldown, is abysmal.
The player sentiment is crystallizing in the form of over 28,000 Steam reviews, branding the game "Mostly Negative." The criticisms are scathing and focused. Players report severe performance issues, but more damningly, they describe a game that feels hollow and derivative.
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) January 24, 2026
"Aggressively Generic": A Problem of Identity
The backlash isn't just about bugs; it's about a fundamental disappointment in the product versus its premium marketing. Influencers and players alike are calling out a perceived lack of soul.
Popular critic Legendary Drops dissected the reveal on his channel, calling it “the most aggressively generic reveal we saw the entire night.” He pointed specifically to the uninspired character design, noting, “The character that they led with, honestly, looks like John Video Game, zero identity, zero personality, a lot like the whole game.”
He wasn't alone in drawing comparisons to the industry's most recent ghost. During a reaction stream, megastreamer Asmongold agreed with the Concord parallels, stating a core truth of the hero shooter genre: “If people don’t want to be the roles in the game, then why would they play the game?”
The sentiment echoes through the Steam reviews. One player with over 12 hours summed it up: “Highguard is another mid-AAA graphic-focused shooter that doesn't know what it's trying to be.” The game, given the prime spotlight at the industry's biggest awards show, was teased as something spectacular. The audience it courted now feels betrayed by a experience they deem profoundly mediocre.
Is the Writing on the Wall?
While it's still early, the metrics and mood paint a dire picture. Highguard suffers from the same crisis of identity that doomed Concord, but with the added pressure of coming from a celebrated team and receiving a top-tier promotional push. Being free-to-play bought it a larger initial crowd, but it has failed to give them a reason to stay.
The weekend may offer a slight rebound, but hopes are not high. The question is no longer if Highguard will be a success, but whether it will avoid the fate of becoming the next historic flop—a second, even more embarrassing lesson that pedigree and presentation are meaningless without a compelling, well-executed game at the core.
For players looking to navigate Highguard's systems despite its rocky start, a detailed game guide is available on Amazon.
Sources: Legendary Drops | Asmongold | Geoff Keighley on X