Highguard Website Goes Dark in Light of Tencent Controversy 

• Highguard’s website went dark after claims it was secretly funded by Tencent, which Wildlight Entertainment has not addressed.

• The studio recently laid off most staff, fueling fears the game may shut down.

• Some compare its rocky launch to Splitgate 2, suggesting a relaunch could be its only hope.

Beleaguered live service shooter Highguard has seen its website shut down with a “Site Unavailable” message, following recent accusations that the game was secretly funded by Chinese gaming conglomerate Tencent. The developer and publisher, Wildlight Entertainment, has been very vocal in the wake of the game’s release on Jan. 26 that it was self-funded and an independent effort. However, Wildlight is remaining silent about these new claims.

The last post Wildlight made on social media was the reveal that, only two weeks after launch, it was firing the vast majority of staff. Previously, it had announced patch notes and a 5v5 mode. As for the Tencent funding claim, this was reported by Game File, although with the caveat that the news came from “sources familiar with the matter.”

Wildlight had also been busy filling the official Highguard YouTube channel with related game content, including new characters, new cosmetics, and new maps that also deepen the game’s lore. Comments from gamers on many of these videos veer into expected Concord references, but also note that the recent content looks loads better than what the game actually launched with.

“This map reveal trailer would have killed it at the game awards show. Literally any trailer since the game released would have been 1,000% better and left a good impression on gamers then the action trailer they showed,” goes one recent comment.

PvP Free For All

Without any concrete info from either side, gamers are taking Tencent and Wildlight’s respective silences as an admission of guilt. Plus, with the Highguard website currently offline, it’s hard for people to not point fingers and offer a self-congratulatory “I told you so.” 

Highguard’s Discord channel is currently experiencing a feeding frenzy of players alternating between tearing into the game and defending it, with a few lone comments occasionally rising from the murk, along the lines of “Kinda crazy how I joined the Discord to get some updates on the website and maybe hear about a future patch and I still had to scroll past people who are in here for some reason dancing on the games death while I just want to keep enjoy it.”

Amidst all this, on socials and places like in Steam discussions, there is one genuine concern: does all of this mean the game will actually be shut down? The hope is that, following the lay-off news, Wildlight are simply restructuring the game’s infrastructure behind-the-scenes, although the radio silence is still hard to ignore.

Retire or Relaunch?

In a Polygon interview at the start of February various top Wildlight staff, including co-founder Chad Grenier, spoke about their hopes for Highguard’s future, as well as their disappointment that it hadn’t been received with open arms by gamers. 

Seeking to counteract this negativity, Grenier said that “Whether it gets a thousand people or a hundred million people, it doesn’t matter. What matters most is that the game is loved by the people who played it.” 

He’s not the first studio head to assume his game is going to be well-received and set the industry on fire, nor the first to eat his words as player response runs drastically counter to expectations; last year 1047 Games was forced to eat crow after studio head, Ian Proloux, took to the stage at Summer Game Fest with the claim that the then-upcoming Splitgate 2 would be, effectively, a Call of Duty beater.

However, to its credit, 1047 Games pulled Splitgate 2 from stores after an underwhelming launch and relaunched it in December as Splitgate: Arena Reloaded; it’s now maintaining a steady average of 900 players every week, on PC at least. Highguard currently averages just over that on PC, but crucially has been hemorrhaging players since launch. 

Grenier’s comments also fly in the face of genuine indie game studios, such as Digital CyberCherries (Don’t Scream Together, Hypercharged: Unboxed) that has a similar “it doesn’t matter how many players we have, as long as they enjoy the game” ethos. The difference is, DCC has been very vocal about issues with its games and has been quick to involve the community in fixes.

How, or even if, Wildlight Entertainment can weather this current storm remains to be seen. If it wants to take a page out of 1047 Games’ book and relaunch, Highguard might see a renewed appreciation from loyal players. Otherwise, Grenier might want to look at competitor Embark Studios’ continued success with its live service title, ARC Raiders. That has all the hallmarks of other online shooters, but eschews a free-to-play model for a $40 price tag alongside cosmetic micro-transactions. Or maybe it really is too late for Highguard, and it truly is a new cautionary tale in the mold of Concord.