In what's unfortunately felt like an inevitability since the game was first announced, Highguard is officially shutting down next week, with the online shooter "not able to build a sustainable player base to support the game long term".
The team at Wildlight Entertainment has announced the news on social media, addressing the "more than two million players" that have jumped into Highguard since launch in late January. We'll share the studio's full message down below:
"Today we’re sharing difficult news. We have made the decision to permanently shut down Highguard on March 12.
Since launch, more than 2 million players stepped into Highguard’s world. You shared feedback, created content, and many believed in what we were building. For that, we are deeply grateful.
Despite the passion and hard work of our team, we have not been able to build a sustainable player base to support the game long term. Servers will remain online until March 12th. We hope you’ll jump in with us one more time to show your support and get those final great matches in while we still can.
The team is excited to release one final game update to enjoy in the remaining life of the game. We'll be adding a new Warden, a new weapon, account level progression, and skill trees! Full patch notes are coming, and we're targeting tonight or tomorrow morning for patch release.
From all of us at Wildlight, thank you for playing, for supporting us, and for being part of Highguard’s story."
Highguard has had a short but troubled life, hasn't it. The game was first announced at The Game Awards 2025 to a wildly lukewarm reception, with fans quick to write the game off. Once it eventually launched as a free-to-play title in January players did find merit in it - but clearly not enough to keep the game going longer than just over a month.
We indeed had an okay time with the game, with the team quickly addressing one of our biggest complaints that the game just didn't have enough to it shortly after launch. We'll link to some of those related Highguard stories down below.