“They only gave me a sandwich.” One creator says he never saw a single cent for speaking well of Highguard, even though he’s been called all kinds of things for doing it. Some users insist the studio has “bought opinions” from content creators.
Highguard has been generating a lot of chatter, and in many cases players have been louder than the studio behind it. Revealed as the closing game of The Game Awards 2025, the free-to-play shooter landed to a mixed reception at an event where audiences are used to bigger shocks. Even so, the game has not been pushed back, and early impressions on social media over the weekend were positive enough that one creator with access to the title said the interest was genuine and, in his case, not paid for.
After weeks of near silence following the surprise reveal at Geoff Keighley’s show, Wildlight’s first game – built by veterans of Apex Legends and Titanfall – is finally set to arrive today, January 26, after persistent rumors of a possible delay. The North American studio is also lining up an exclusive event to outline what comes next for the project in the immediate future.
A Content Creator Denies Being Paid to Praise Highguard
Still, as noted, the argument over the game’s quality has intensified in recent hours even though it has not launched yet, making any hard conclusions impossible. After several creators posted very upbeat first takes, some users accused them of having “bought opinions” courtesy of the developer.
In that context, creator TheMacroShow pushed back publicly on social media, saying he received no financial compensation for attending. He added that the studio did not pay for flights, lodging, or even local transportation, and that the only “compensation” he got was a sandwich during the lunch break.
Macro also said he turned down a later offer to produce a sponsored video for the game because he preferred giving his audience his honest opinion. Even so, part of the community keeps pointing at creators who have already spoken publicly about the game and also name-checks Geoff Keighley as one of the main drivers of its visibility, almost like an unofficial spokesperson for the project.
That backdrop has revived criticism of what many call an “inorganic” marketing approach that leans heavily on the Canadian showman. Either way, with Highguard only hours away – launching this afternoon at 7:00 PM on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S – we will soon see whether it can win over an increasingly hesitant player base on its own merits.
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