Highguard Funding Withdrawn as Development Team Shrinks to Under 20 Members

Tencent has recently withdrawn its financial support from Wildlight Entertainment, the developer behind the newly launched shooter, Highguard. This decision comes just weeks after the game’s debut, resulting in a drastic reduction of the development team to fewer than 20 individuals.

Bloomberg reports that following the game’s launch, the studio saw significant layoffs among its nearly 100-person workforce in February. The cuts were primarily driven by the failure to achieve player retention benchmarks set by Tencent, the game’s undisclosed backer.

Rapid Decline of Player Engagement

Highguard, which launched on January 26, faced a steep decline in its player base, losing approximately 90% of players within just one week. After attracting close to 100, 000 concurrent players on its first day on Steam, the player count plummeted.

On February 11, a mere two weeks post-launch, Wildlight communicated to its staff that financial resources had depleted, leading to the announcement of widespread layoffs accompanied by a minimal severance package.

Highguard released on this day 1 month ago It has since dropped to a recent low of 254 concurrent players on Steam pic.twitter.com/zuA3zkZhca

— dexerto (@dexerto) February 26, 2026

According to insiders contacted by Bloomberg, Tencent’s exit from the funding equation played a crucial role in the studio’s financial challenges. The development team, founded in 2021 by former Respawn Entertainment engineers known for their work on Apex Legends and Titanfall, was initially attracted to Wildlight by a profit-sharing model aimed at fostering a sense of ownership and reward in the event of Highguard’s success.

Despite incorporating a 5v5 gameplay mode and a series of updates aimed at retaining players, Highguard’s metrics continue to show unfavorable engagement, with concurrent players dropping to as low as 250 on Steam this week.

The game’s launch faced criticism for various shortcomings, notably missing features and insufficient motivation for players to remain engaged. Some former developers believe that the surrounding “gamer culture”may have negatively influenced its reception, pointing to premature negative reviews by users who did not progress past the initial tutorial.

For further details, please refer to the comprehensive analysis provided by Dexerto.