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The end for Firewalk Studios: Sony pulls the plug after mega-flop "Concord"
by Debora Pape
From million-dollar slot to Steam crash, the Highguard launch is pure drama
30/1/2026
Translation: Megan Cornish
Highguard was supposed to be the surprise hit of the Game Awards – instead, it’s struggling with poor reviews and dwindling player numbers. It’s a chronicle of rapid decline.
Not every good opportunity’s a good idea. Sometimes, what seems like a golden opportunity turns out to be a strategic mistake. This is what developer Wildlight Entertainment’s currently experiencing. The release of its free-to-play PvP shooter Highguard on 26 January was – to put it mildly – a complete flop.
Very poor reviews on Steam and losing 90 per cent of its player base after just a few days speak volumes – even though the game isn’t actually that bad. The debacle’s inevitably evoking memories of the disastrous launch of Concord in 2024.
Source: Wildlight Entertainment
It could all have been so different, because the studio was invited to present its previously unannounced game to a million viewers on 11 December during the prestigious Game Awards – essentially the Oscars of the gaming industry. Host and producer of the awards ceremony, Geoff Keighley, offered them the most coveted slot of the evening for the game announcement free of charge, because he liked the game (website in German). Wildlight Entertainment accepted.
Studios typically have to pay a lot for a three-minute trailer during The Game Awards – we’re talking more than a million US dollars. The One Last Thing slot’s usually reserved for true blockbusters, making it eagerly anticipated each year.
And what came next? Highguard – a completely unknown game from a studio only founded in 2022. Worse still, another live service game in an already overcrowded market.
Watch the announcement and trailer here:
Concord, is that you?
The reaction was predictably intense. Mockery, derision and outright rejection flooded social media. Under the announcement trailer on YouTube, users vented their disappointment: «nobody needs this», «generic», and «boring» were just some of the comments.
It all brings back memories of the Concord disaster in 2024. That was also a hero shooter whose announcement trailer flopped and was barely played after its release. Not least because the game wasn’t free-to-play and cost 40 euros/francs. Just days later, the game was shut down, and the studio – which belonged to PlayStation – followed a few weeks later.
While Wildlight didn’t address it, the team also missed the opportunity to respond to the disastrous reactions to the announcement before release. Until the game’s launch at the end of January, there was complete radio silence on its official channels. There were no explanations or further information about the game. So, the developers stuck to their original plan of not discussing the game before its release – as a pre-announcement was not initially intended.
The original plan was a shadow drop
In a discussion a few days ago, two top managers at the studio – Jason Torfin and Mohammed Alavi – explained that Highguard was originally intended to be released as a shadow drop without any marketing. This would’ve given it the chance to «speak for itself», as Torfin put it.
The team already has positive experience with shadow drops – a lot of the staff worked on Apex Legends and Titanfall before joining the studio. Apex Legends was released in 2019 as a free-to-play shadow drop title and established itself as a leader in the competitive live-service gaming market.
Source: Wildlight Entertainment
The team apparently didn’t want to miss the opportunity to present Highguard to a million viewers during the Game Awards. However, those in charge seem to have underestimated the expectations surrounding this prestigious slot.
This is underlined by the announcement trailer shown being completely unsuitable for the situation. It was actually intended as a launch trailer for the shadow drop, studio co-founder Chad Grenier admitted to Kotaku. Along with the trailer – which was designed for quick entertainment – a longer deep-dive video explaining the game mechanics was originally planned. On its own, the short film isn’t convincing.
Is the game as bad as reviews say?
Negative publicity’s also a form of advertising, as we all know – and because Highguard’s free to play, enough gamers were curious enough to download it. 100,000 players were active simultaneously on launch day. But the euphoria didn’t last long: after just twelve hours, only 15,000 gamers remained, and the current number of players is only between 5,000 and 7,000.
Source: SteamDB
A rapid decline in player numbers isn’t necessarily a death sentence for a game. Alavi says the game doesn’t need a huge player base. A core group of fans who like the game and remain loyal as it grows is enough. Whether that’ll happen remains to be seen.
However, the poor reviews could deter new players. Currently, Highguard is rated «mostly negative» on Steam: only 38 per cent of its more than 30,000 reviews recommend the game (as of 30 January).
However, this isn’t the whole picture. Steam reviews can be filtered by playing time, and, for most reviews, this is very short. More than 12,000 reviewers haven’t even spent an hour on Highguard. Many of them leave a brief, uninformative review – classic review bombing. The reviewers aren’t interested in an objective assessment of the game; they want to punish the studio.
Source: Wildlight Entertainment
One of the biggest valid criticisms is that there’s only one game mode – 3v3 – and the maps are too large for it. You can win a match without even seeing the opposing team. Collecting weapons and resources feels tedious because the map size rarely leads to spontaneous encounters. Some reviews also complain about performance issues on PC. A patch released three days after launch supposedly significantly boosts performance and includes several quality-of-life improvements.
Only 3,349 reviews were written by people who had played for more than five hours. And the tone of them is completely different: 82 per cent recommend the game, classifying it as «very positive». The general consensus is there are rough edges the studio should smooth out, but, for a free-to-play experience, the game isn’t bad. There’s also no pay-to-win mechanic: only cosmetic items and skins are available via microtransactions.
Wildlight’s also released a roadmap for the first year after launch, promising plenty of new content.
Source: Wildlight Entertainment
Will Highguard turn things around?
There have been many disastrous launches in the past, and a premature end like that of Concord isn’t inevitable. For its bug-riddled AAA title Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red delivered updates, and the game ultimately became a success. The launch of No Man’s Sky was even more disastrous. The game generated excessive expectations before its release and failed to meet them. It took eight years – and numerous free updates – for the game to achieve a «very positive» rating on Steam.
Both games are considered prime examples of how a poor start doesn’t have to spell the end for a game. Highguard offers a solid foundation, and the team’s working on free performance and content patches. Now everything depends on whether that’s enough to convince a sufficient number of players.
It’s going to be a tough ask with a poor launch and a saturated market. Highguard competes in the expanded live service sector with games like Apex Legends, Titanfall 2, Overwatch 2, Arc Raiders and Rainbow Six Siege, some of which released new content in January, attracting a lot of players.
Header image: Wildlight Entertainment/"Highguard"
Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.
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