Wildlight Entertainment, the studio behind the new not-hero shooter Highguard, has reportedly laid off “most” of its team just weeks after the game launched on January 26.
Level designer Alex Graner posted about the news on his LinkedIn account, saying he’s looking for whatever’s next after he and an unknown number of his fellow employees have been let go. Kotaku has reached out to Wildlight for comment and will update the story if we hear back.
Unfortunately, along with most of the team at Wildlight, I was laid off today.
This one really stings as there was a lot of unreleased content I was really looking forward to that I and others designed for Highguard.
However, I’m excited for my next adventure. If your team or anyone you know needs an experienced Level Designer, hit me up!
Highguard was announced in December during the 2025 Game Awards, and it didn’t go over very well with some sides of the internet. Then the team at Wildlight went radio silent for weeks until the game finally launched at the end of January and press and content creators got hands-on time with the game. The response to the final game was a bit lukewarm, though Wildlight was quick to respond to feedback about the game’s small 3v3 team compositions by adding a 5v5 mode within the first week.
Though the game seemed to struggle in terms of concurrent players, director and studio head Chad Grenier said in an interview with Polygon that the team was less concerned with player counts than it was with making something its player base enjoyed. “Whether it gets a thousand people or a hundred million people, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “What matters most is that the game is loved by the people who played it.”
Update 2/11/2026, 7:39 p.m. ET: More and more developers are speaking publicly about the layoffs, reiterating that most of the studio seems to have been impacted.
Today I was laid off from Wildlight along with most of the staff. It was the best team I’ve ever worked with, and I’ve never put so much of myself into a project before. I wouldn’t trade the past 2.5+ yrs for anything. I’m still spinning, and won’t be in a place to start thinking… pic.twitter.com/AimTVwrJ7N
— Josh Sobel (@Joshiepoo25) February 11, 2026
Update 2/11/2026, 7:52 p.m. ET: Wildlight provided the following statement:
“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.
We’re proud of the team, talent, and the product we’ve created together. We’re also grateful for players who gave the game a shot, and those who continue to be a part of our community.”
