Gamers abandon Highguard, Geoff Keighley's champion title from The Game Awards 2025

Geoff Keighley hyped up the release of Highguard at The Game Awards 2025 (TGS) in December, saying sixty-one developers who previously worked on Apex Legends and Titanfall are behind the release, and that the debut is right around the corner. Well, the launch has happened, and the results aren't looking good for developer Wildlight Entertainment.

Highguard was released on Steam for free on January 26, 2026, and shortly after its debut, it almost reached 100,000 concurrent players. However, less than two days after its launch, Highguard has lost nearly 90% of its player base, despite there being no price tag attached to the title. Currently, the user review rating on Steam is sitting at "Mostly Negative" with a 36.67% rating.

In a recent interview with Wildlight Entertainment co-founder Chad Grenier, it was revealed that the developers intended Highguard's "surprise release" until Geoff Keighley wanted to put the title into The Game Awards 2025 showcase. The co-founder explained that Wildlight Entertainment was going to do a "shadowdrop," and that was the plan since the first days of developing the title, as it "worked well" with Apex Legends.

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Grenier went on to say that after Keighley wanted to showcase the title at TGS, the team "rushed a trailer together," with the co-founder going on to say, "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."

The response from The Game Awards 2025 trailer of Highguard was mixed opinions at best, with many viewers describing the title as Concord 2, the failed hero shooter from Sony that reportedly cost as much as $400 million, and didn't make a single dollar. While that sentiment certainly poisoned the waters ahead of Highguard's release, the gameplay itself seemingly didn't satisfy players either, despite thousands trying it. Some critics have accused gamers of making up their minds about the title before it was released, which is true to a certain degree.

However, if the title was good, it would be able to withstand the criticism and retain far more of its player base than it has within the two days of launch, but instead it lost nearly 90% of its players.