Wildlight Leisure, the studio behind the brand new not-hero shooter Highguard, has reportedly laid off “most” of its crew simply weeks after the sport launched on January 26.
Stage designer Alex Graner posted in regards to the information on his LinkedIn account, saying he’s on the lookout for no matter’s subsequent after he and an unknown variety of his fellow workers have been let go. Kotaku has reached out to Wildlight for remark and can replace the story if we hear again.
Sadly, together with many of the crew at Wildlight, I used to be laid off right this moment.
This one actually stings as there was a number of unreleased content material I used to be actually trying ahead to that I and others designed for Highguard.
Nonetheless, I’m excited for my subsequent journey. In case your crew or anybody you already know wants an skilled Stage Designer, hit me up!
Highguard was introduced in December in the course of the 2025 Recreation Awards, and it didn’t go over very properly with some sides of the web. Then the crew at Wildlight went radio silent for weeks till the sport lastly launched on the finish of January and press and content material creators received hands-on time with the sport. The response to the ultimate recreation was a bit lukewarm, although Wildlight was fast to reply to suggestions in regards to the recreation’s small 3v3 crew compositions by including a 5v5 mode throughout the first week.
Although the sport appeared to wrestle by way of concurrent gamers, director and studio head Chad Grenier stated in an interview with Polygon that the crew was much less involved with participant counts than it was with making one thing its participant base loved. “Whether or not it will get a thousand folks or 100 million folks, it doesn’t matter,” he stated. “What issues most is that the sport is liked by the individuals who performed it.”
Replace 2/11/2026, 7:39 p.m. ET: Increasingly builders are talking publicly in regards to the layoffs, reiterating that many of the studio appears to have been impacted.
Immediately I used to be laid off from Wildlight together with many of the workers. It was the most effective crew I’ve ever labored with, and I’ve by no means put a lot of myself right into a venture earlier than. I would not commerce the previous 2.5+ yrs for something. I am nonetheless spinning, and will not be in a spot to begin pondering… pic.twitter.com/AimTVwrJ7N
— Josh Sobel (@Joshiepoo25) February 11, 2026
Replace 2/11/2026, 7:52 p.m. ET: Wildlight offered the next assertion:
“Immediately we made an extremely troublesome resolution to half methods with numerous our crew members whereas holding a core group of builders to proceed innovating on and supporting the sport.
We’re happy with the crew, expertise, and the product we’ve created collectively. We’re additionally grateful for gamers who gave the sport a shot, and those that proceed to be part of our neighborhood.”
