Wildlight Entertainment has confirmed that Highguard will be shutting down on March 12, 2026. The announcement was posted to the Playhighguard Twitter/X account:
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 faced an uphill battle from the start, struggling to attract a sustainable player base. Shortly after launch, a majority of the development team was laid off, with only a small group remaining to keep the game going. Many assumed the game still had time to recover, and a new mode had been revealed just days ago. That was not to be.
As for what caused the game to not find a footing, there’s so many reasons that have been floated from those who played the game, to the developers, and critics alike. Regardless, when you see someone pour their souls into something, you hate to see it fail apart like it did with Highguard.
Seeing this happen far too often, with developers losing their jobs despite pouring themselves into something they believed in, is genuinely frustrating. Hopefully those individuals find opportunities elsewhere.
