#highguard

#highguard

The launch of Highguard this week has reignited a debate around good manners. Over a hundred people worked for several years on a project they were passionate about. Instead of everyone giving it a fair shake and casually talking about what they did or didn't like about it, the conversation around the new multiplayer shooter was quickly subsumed by a torrent of knee-jerk negativity. Social media is full of people dunking on the game for clout

Things started out quite well, though, as the game hit 97,249 concurrent players on its launch day. That's a respectable amount of people, especially when you consider the developers have said they don't need a lot of players to make the game profitable. It's sitting at about 50,000 players as I write this. But, venture onto Steam proper and the user reviews are not kind. Right now, it has a "Mostly Negative" rating from just over 9,000 reviews.

has been out for about 24 hours now, and surprisingly, one of the people getting flak for the perceived slight of its existence is Game Awards host Geoff Keighley. Wildlight Entertainment had originally planned to spiritual successor before Keighley approached them about featuring it in December's award show with a pimp spot, and now that the game is out and people are having...Highguard shadow-drop its Apex Legends passionate reactions to it, the host has been getting an odd amount of hate for it.

On January 26, Highguard's big launch day on PC and consoles, the devs quietly made a small but very interesting change to the game's store page on Steam. Highguard's original Steam description said this: From the creators of Apex Legends and Titanfall, comes Highguard: a PvP raid shooter where players will ride, fight, and raid as Wardens, arcane gunslingers sent to fight for control of a mythical continent.

When The Game Awards 2025 ended with a trailer for Highguard, a new FPS from some ex- Titanfall devs, it failed to wow the internet, and the weeks of radio silence that followed only provided a void that was quickly filled by speculation, debate, and skepticism. Now, weeks later, Highguard has finally launched, and everyone has a chance to play it and really figure out what this game is and if it will be a hit or another short-lived multiplayer flop like Concord.

Since its reveal in December, Highguard has a strange few weeks. Being the big reveal at the end of the Game Awards, which reportedly the company didn't pay for, got it a lot of eyeballs, but also a lot of scrutiny. People tend to expect some big new sequel or long-awaited project to cap off host Geoff Keighley's annual award and trailer showcase. Instead, Geoff showcased a free-to-play online shooter that, too many online, looked too similar to many other games already out there.

From the creators of Apex Legends and Titanfall, comes Highguard: a PvP raid shooter where players will ride, fight, and raid as Wardens, arcane gunslingers sent to battle for control of a mythical continent.