The recent Game Awards ceremony had its memorable moments and some less exciting parts, but one thing that keeps coming up in conversations is the unusual choice to end the show with a brand new live-service hero shooter. The game’s first trailer didn’t look particularly groundbreaking, which left many people scratching their heads. However, the developers behind this project have impressive resumes, having worked on popular titles like Titanfall and Apex Legends. Because of their track record, many believe they deserve a fair chance, which is why we are paying close attention to Highguard before its launch on January 26th.
Just a few days ago, we discovered through a report that the show’s organizer, Geoff Keighley, was so impressed with what he saw of Highguard that he gave the final presentation slot to the developers at Wildlight Entertainment for free. If you look around on social media, you will notice that the conversation has slowly started to change from skepticism to curiosity, with people wondering if Highguard might actually turn out to be good. After all, both Titanfall and Apex Legends are known for having some of the best gameplay feel in the first-person shooter genre in recent years. It makes you wonder if the marketing for Highguard simply hasn’t been effective enough.
There was nothing particularly bad about the first look at the game; it simply looked acceptable. The issue is that being just “fine” is rarely enough to stand out in today’s crowded market. The memory of another game called Concord failing spectacularly in 2024 still hangs over the entire hero shooter genre. Fans of first-person shooters have been asking why there hasn’t been any new information from the official channels since The Game Awards ended. While the official website has been running a countdown timer, there hasn’t been much excitement or buzz. Is Wildlight trying to create a surprise launch similar to how Apex Legends was released?
Information from SteamDB suggests the game is alive and well, with plans to launch next Monday on PC through Steam and current-generation consoles. In fact, activity on the backend has increased again this week, with new tags being added and removed, and package changes happening in the background. Even though the initial negative reaction was concerning, it appears the development plans haven’t changed, and we are simply looking at an unusual pre-launch period.
Image credit: Wildlight Entertainment
Across social media platforms like X and BlueSky, YouTubers, streamers, and other notable figures in the gaming industry are starting to believe in the game once we actually get to play it. One industry observer recently posted that they are half convinced it is going to be good, noting that too many people have bet on it failing. If we look at past examples of games that faced similar criticism online, we could say Highguard’s chances of success might actually be solid.
In any case, the actual marketing strategy for the game might be the absence of any official marketing. Surprisingly, this has led to viral posts where people closely examine a single paragraph of information, speculating that it might contain the executable file for the classic game Tribes 2. It brings back memories of the old days when the gaming community would collectively obsess over shocking online game launches, and that feeling isn’t necessarily a bad one.
