Highguard Lost Tencent Funding After Two Weeks
Highguard, initially launched as a survival shooter, reportedly lost its Tencent funding just two weeks after launch. Fewer than 20 people remain at the studio, highlighting the volatility in the indie and publisher-backed game development ecosystem. The rapid funding pullback suggests poor initial performance metrics.
Tencent's decision to pull Highguard's funding came just two weeks after the game's January 26th launch, a move announced to staff in an all-hands meeting on February 11th. This rapid withdrawal of support was reportedly due to the game's failure to meet certain performance metrics, such as a strong player retention rate. The studio, Wildlight Entertainment, has since seen its staff reduced from around 100 to fewer than 20 people. The Chinese tech giant's role as the lead financial backer for Highguard was initially kept under wraps and only confirmed several days after the massive layoffs were announced. This secrecy is noteworthy given that Tencent's significant funding was foundational to Wildlight's ability to hire the team behind the game. According to former developers, a sense of "hubris" within Wildlight's leadership contributed to the game's rocky launch. There was a belief that they could replicate the success of *Apex Legends*, a title some of the leadership had previously worked on, without fully considering the current competitive landscape of the shooter genre. Highguard's development was marked by a significant pivot. The game originally began as a survival-shooter, similar to *Rust*, before the studio changed direction after two years of development. Some elements from its survival origins, like mining for currency and base raiding, were salvaged and remain in the final game. The game's reveal at The Game Awards was met with a mixed reception, which one former lead technical artist described as the moment they "were turned into a joke". Following the announcement, a period of silence from the developers and what some gamers perceived as "cringe hype" from content creators contributed to an awkward launch. Despite a substantial initial player base, Highguard's concurrent player numbers have dropped significantly. As of late February, the game had fewer than 400 concurrent players on PC. Despite the layoffs and funding loss, a core team of developers at Wildlight Entertainment remains committed to improving Highguard. The studio has continued to release patches and new game modes in an effort to build on the game's potential.
