Now that PvP raid shooter Highguard is finally out, developer Wildlight Entertainment has spent some time reflecting on how the game was announced, being the final trailer showcased at The Game Awards 2025. In an interview with Kotaku, studio co-founder Chad Grenier noted that the studio had originally planned a surprise release. Being former Respawn Entertainment developers, they had previously seen it work out quite well for Apex Legends. However, The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley offered to do “something special” for Wildlight Entertainment.
“Look, we always planned for a, you know, a surprise release,” said Grenier. “Geoff came in and wanted to do something special and put us in the TGAs. We were gonna do a shadowdrop, you know, since day one, almost since forming this company; we did it with Apex and it worked well.”
This eventually led to Highguard being one of the games that would be showcased at The Game Awards 2025. However, Grenier noted that, in hindsight, unveiling the shooter during one of the biggest gaming events of the year was “maybe a little risky”. He also acknowledged that the creation of the trailer was a bit rushed, and that the studio had neglected to reveal the actual gameplay loop, and instead focused on creating a trailer that could be considered entertaining.
“We’ve known Geoff for a long time, and he said, ‘let me do something,’ that’s maybe a little risky in hindsight—but different, [to] take a free to play PvP Raid Shooter and do something with it,” he explained. “So we rushed a trailer together. I wish the reception had been better, but in hindsight we made a trailer to entertain really quickly, and didn’t show the gameplay loop, and what’s different and unique.”
Despite the less-than-favorable reactions Highguard’s The Game Awards 2025 trailer got, however, Grenier is still confident about the title moving forward, noting that the studio is quite experienced in making games, and how they are familiar with seeing both the highs and the lows of a release.
“So here we are. We’re launching the game now, and the team is resilient and enthusiastic,” he said. “They’ve made a ton of games in their careers; we’ve seen the highs and the lows. I think, ultimately, we believe wholeheartedly in what we’ve created.”
Highguard is a free-to-play PvP shooter, and is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The title, having just launched, has seen an interesting response from the market at large. While its user reviews on Steam are, at the time of publishing, sitting at Mostly Negative, it still saw thousands of players checking it out, peaking at 97,249 on its launch day. A few hours later, the concurrent player count has shrunk by a considerable amount, but this will likely change later since these player counts tend to be cyclical on a daily basis.
For more details on what Wildlight Entertainment has in store for Highguard, check out the roadmap, which features new Wardens, bases, mounts, and even “surprises”.
