Two Weeks After Highguard Launch, Wildlight Confirms Layoffs as Developers Report “Most” of the Team Was Cut
Wildlight Entertainment’s new free to play live service shooter Highguard launched on 01 26 2026, backed by a team of veteran talent associated with Apex Legends and Titanfall 2. A little more than 2 weeks later, on 02 11 2026, the studio confirmed it has carried out layoffs, stating it is keeping a smaller core group to continue supporting and developing the game.
The news first surfaced through individual staff posts on LinkedIn from developers across multiple disciplines, including principal and senior level roles, before Wildlight issued an official statement on its social channels. In that statement, the studio said it made a difficult decision to part ways with a number of team members while retaining a core group to continue innovating on and supporting Highguard.
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.
— Wildlight Entertainment (@WildlightEnt) February 12, 2026
We're proud of the team, talent, and the product we've created together. We're also grateful…
While Wildlight did not disclose a specific number, the reporting becomes more pointed through the affected developers’ posts. Lead tech artist Josh Sobel wrote that he was laid off along with “most of the staff,” describing the work as deeply personal and praising the team he spent more than 2.5 years building the project with. His post is here: Josh Sobel on LinkedIn. The use of the word “most” by multiple impacted developers is what makes this story land with extra weight, because it signals a significant contraction rather than a limited restructure.
From a product and market lens, the speed of the layoffs suggests Highguard did not reach the early momentum Wildlight needed to justify its original operating scale. The launch approach also appears to have contributed to weak initial understanding and skepticism, with the game’s early marketing beats failing to clearly communicate what the experience actually is, followed by a quiet period that did not build confidence or community expectation. Once servers went live, negative reception on Steam and rapid drop off from launch interest created the kind of immediate pressure that live service projects struggle to survive without strong retention metrics.
To Wildlight’s credit, the studio moved quickly to respond to player feedback with a 5v5 mode intended to increase match intensity after players complained about pacing and engagement. That update was communicated here: PlayHighguard on X. The challenge is that live service recovery depends on iteration velocity, and shrinking the team reduces the studio’s ability to patch, tune, and add content quickly enough to change sentiment in a meaningful window.
You've been asking, and we're happy to share—5v5 Raid Mode is here to stay! ⚔
— Highguard (@PlayHighguard) February 2, 2026
We appreciate everyone hopping in over the weekend to give the mode a try. We saw a fairly even split between 3v3 and 5v5, which helped inform our decision. pic.twitter.com/S0QfgCE7vK
Zooming out, this is another example of the current live service trap. Studios still invest heavily in games designed around breakout scale outcomes, but when the launch curve does not immediately signal a path to Fortnite level durability, the operational response often becomes layoffs and a pivot to survival mode. That pattern is becoming painfully familiar. It is hard on developers, hard on players who want the game to improve, and it raises the broader question of whether the industry has normalized an unsustainable launch and cut cycle as a default business plan.
Highguard could still recover with smart prioritization, clear messaging, and consistent updates. Other games have pulled off turnarounds. But this outcome, layoffs within weeks, reinforces how unforgiving the market has become for new free to play shooters that do not land perfectly on day 1.
Do you think Highguard can realistically recover with a smaller core team, or is the modern free to play shooter market too crowded for a second chance without a major relaunch?
