Wildlight Entertainment just gutted its workforce barely two weeks after launching Highguard, its multiplayer shooter built by veterans from Apex Legends and Call of Duty. The layoffs hit most of the team according to affected staffers posting on LinkedIn, marking one of the fastest post-launch collapses in recent gaming memory. The studio says it's keeping a "core group" to support the game, but the speed and scale of cuts raise serious questions about Highguard's performance and the company's runway.
Wildlight Entertainment is slashing its workforce just over two weeks after launching Highguard, in what appears to be one of the quickest post-launch studio implosions in recent years. The cuts hit most of the team according to multiple former employees who took to LinkedIn to share the news, painting a grim picture for the multiplayer shooter that promised to bring AAA talent to a crowded genre.
Former Wildlight level designer Alex Graner broke the news in a LinkedIn post, stating that "most of the team at Wildlight" was laid off. Former lead tech artist Josh Sobel backed up the claim in his own post, confirming the scale of the cuts. The studio launched Highguard in late January 2026, meaning the team had less than three weeks to prove the game's viability before the axe fell.
Wildlight tried to soften the blow in a statement on X, using the familiar playbook of companies caught in damage control mode. "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," the company said. But the LinkedIn testimonials tell a different story - this wasn't trimming around the edges, it was wholesale gutting of the workforce.
The timing is brutal. Wildlight had positioned Highguard as a premium multiplayer experience built by industry veterans who'd worked on blockbusters like Apex Legends and Call of Duty. That pedigree generated buzz in gaming circles, but it apparently wasn't enough to translate into the player numbers or revenue needed to sustain the team. The studio hasn't released any metrics on concurrent players, downloads, or sales figures, and that silence speaks volumes.
