Imagine pouring your heart and soul into a project, only to watch it get torn apart online before it even has a chance to breathe. That’s exactly what happened to Highguard, the debut game from Wildlight Entertainment, and one of its laid-off developers, Josh Sobel, isn’t staying silent about it. In a candid post on X, Sobel called out the toxic online culture of ‘dogpiling’ and ‘ragebait content’ that he believes played a significant role in the game’s rocky launch and subsequent layoffs.
Highguard, developed by industry veterans, made its grand debut at December’s The Game Awards, promising a unique blend of FPS mechanics, rideable mounts, and raid-style gameplay. The hype was palpable, with early feedback from insiders glowing with praise. Phrases like ‘this has mainstream hit written all over it’ and ‘nobody in the industry is worried this will fail’ were thrown around, setting high expectations. But here’s where it gets controversial: after the reveal, the tide turned dramatically. Sobel claims that YouTubers and content creators fueled the negativity with ‘ragebait’ videos, prioritizing clicks over constructive criticism.
‘Content creators love to point out the bias in positive previews,’ Sobel wrote, ‘but they ignore that their negative content gets 10x the engagement. They’ve got just as much incentive to lean into disingenuous directions, whether consciously or not.’ And this is the part most people miss: Sobel himself became a target, facing personal attacks for his pride in the game and even his autism disclosure, which was twisted into accusations of the game being ‘woke trash.’
Despite launching with nearly 100,000 concurrent players on Steam, Highguard’s numbers plummeted, and the game was declared ‘dead on arrival’ within minutes of its reveal. Sobel highlights the absurdity of review bombs from players with barely an hour of gameplay and the flood of meme-driven negativity in comment sections. But here’s the kicker: Sobel doesn’t entirely blame the players. He acknowledges that while the game’s reception was influenced by toxic discourse, other factors like the lack of a beta test and over-reliance on early positive feedback likely contributed to its struggles.
Wildlight’s studio head, Chad Grenier, had previously stated that player numbers didn’t matter as long as the game was loved by those who played it. But with concurrent players dropping below 5,000 and a wave of layoffs hitting the team, it’s clear that love wasn’t enough. Sobel’s post has sparked a heated debate, with some supporting his stance and others arguing that the game’s flaws were its own undoing. Is gamer culture to blame, or did Highguard simply miss the mark? Let’s discuss—what do you think?
