As expected, Wildlight Entertainment went through a serious downsizing not long after Highguard launched.

Wildlight Entertainment said it has let a number of employees go while keeping a core development group in place to keep improving and supporting its recently released free-to-play first-person shooter, Highguard, and the studio shared the message on Twitter.

“Today we made an incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members while keeping a core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game. We’re proud of the team, talent, and the product we’ve created together. We’re also grateful for the players who gave the game a shot and for those who continue to be part of our community.”

Today we made an incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members while keeping a core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game.

We’re proud of the team, talent, and the product we’ve created together. We’re also grateful…

— Wildlight Entertainment (@WildlightEnt) February 12, 2026

The announcement arrived after Alex Graner, a former level designer at Wildlight Entertainment, posted on LinkedIn that he had been let go alongside most of the studio’s staff.

“Today, I was laid off from my job at Wildlight, along with most of the staff. It was the best team I’ve ever worked with, and I’ve never put so much of myself into a project before. I wouldn’t trade the past 2.5+ years for anything. I’m still reeling, and I won’t be ready to think about the future for a while, but please keep me in mind if you’re looking for a senior or higher-level rigger in the near future.”

The layoffs landed a little over two weeks after Highguard released on January 26.

The game had only been formally revealed in December, as the final announcement of The Game Awards.

It’s hard to argue the launch played out the way Wildlight wanted it to.

The studio introduced the project at The Game Awards with a trailer that didn’t clearly communicate what the game actually was.

After that came near-total silence.

Then the team attempted a surprise release, which mostly confused players and encouraged a skeptical reaction once the servers finally went live.

Once some of the more obvious issues became clear after launch, many of the people who showed up on day one disappeared without a second thought.

Studio leadership apologized for how the release was handled.

Meanwhile, Steam users were ruthless and flooded Highguard with negative reviews.

Source: Gematsu, WCCFTech, LinkedIn (Alex Graner), LinkedIn (Aftermath 1), LinkedIn (Aftermath 2), LinkedIn (Aftermath 3)