On Highguard: Stop declaring (free) games dead before they launch

Written by Jason Dailey on 12/18/2025 for PC   PS5   XSX  

I’ve been on the wrong end of some high-profile video game failures in the last year. For instance, I adored Concord, and I thought XDefiant was decent enough that it had long-term potential. Both games are now defunct, with PlayStation and Ubisoft each shutting down their respective multiplayer shooter failures.

For context, and full disclosure, I reviewed both games, giving Concord an 8.5/10, and XDefiant a 7.5/10. Not bad, right? Well, the market (and the internet) has proven me to be dead wrong in both instances, and I can live with that. I can take the L. But here's the rub: I think the market and the internet are dead wrong about both games, and they’re about to get it dead wrong about another if we don’t start giving games (and developers) a fair chance to prove us right or wrong.

The game I’m referring to is Highguard, an upcoming free-to-play, first-person PvP shooter from a new studio comprised of former Apex Legends, Call of Duty, and Titanfall developers called Wildlight Entertainment. With a pedigree like that, you’d think people online would be hopeful that Highguard could be the next big multiplayer shooter, right? Well, you’d be the dead wrong one now.

Anecdotally, social media users are mostly unimpressed with Highguard’s reveal, throwing around phrases like “generic hero shooter slop,” or “another live service failure,” or even “Concord 2.” Yikes. There have also been reports that, on YouTube, the dislike-to-like ratio for the game’s debut trailer is overwhelmingly skewed towards the dislike button – by the thousands. Big yikes.

Gamers are mostly lamenting the character design and art style, from what I see online. It’s the same thing they did with Concord, though the criticism of those characters also had a bit of a political slant. I admit, one of the thoughts going through my head during the trailer was that Highguard reminds me of Overwatch, but is it a bad thing to take inspiration from one of the most successful multiplayer shooters ever made, with some of the most beloved characters ever designed?

In other words, I think we are starting to paint too broadly on our gaming canvas. Our game design bingo card has grown too large. Stylized art style? Bingo! Characters with abilities? Bingo! Guns? Bingo! There you have it, folks, Highguard is Dead Game™! Such arguments are reductive, and if we’re going to demand so much of video game developers, then we must demand more of ourselves as well.

I’ve also seen criticism that Highguard is trying to enter an oversaturated market. I’m assuming that means the multiplayer shooter market. Folks, multiplayer shooters are not going to stop coming to market. And I hate to be the one to tell you this, but we aren’t done getting multiplayer shooters with ability-based “hero” characters. That’s a mostly tried-and-true video game design philosophy. That said, what better way to try to breakthrough the market, and dozens of multiplayer shooters released each year than by releasing as a free-to-play title? Which leads to my TL;DR takeaway…

Highguard will be free…to…play. If you own a PC or current-gen console, there will be no barrier to entry keeping you from trying Wildlight Entertainment’s debut shooter. What is there to lose? Maybe you’ll love it, maybe you’ll hate it, maybe it’s mid, but how will you truly know if Highguard is good or bad if you don’t play it? Furthermore, how can we sit here today and make sweeping judgements about a game that we haven’t got our hands on yet? Issuing death sentences for games that we have no first-hand experience with is getting exhausting to this writer. You can’t say you hate ice cream if you’ve never had ice cream, much in the same way that I can’t really say that I hate cottage cheese, since I’ve never tried it. The looks of it may not appeal to me, but I can’t make an informed judgement until I am brave enough to try it for myself one day. I can say that cottage cheese doesn’t look like my kind of cheese, but I can’t declare it to be Dead Cheese™. I’ll tell you what – if cottage cheese ever goes free-to-play, I’ll finally try it.

Ultimately, regardless of whether Highguard turns out to be good, bad, or average, it simply cannot continue to be this way in our little circle of the entertainment industry. We’re teetering on cutting off our nose to spite our face. If we cannot manage to give a free video game an opportunity to win us over, if we cannot be less shallow and more nuanced in our conversation about video games, I’m concerned that we’ll discourage game makers from taking chances, from iterating within genres, from refining concepts and trying to take them to new heights. Because I think that’s what Highguard is attempting to do, and I’m all for that.