Highguard is right here. I might say it’s right here to remain, nevertheless it’s cataclysmic decline following its preliminary launch is form of heralding its doom. I stay optimistic that the sport discovered its core viewers and can trip out the storm, but in addition consider all of this might have been averted. And really simply at that.
It’s frequent data by now that Highguard was shot within the foot with that The Sport Awards trailer. Saved for the ultimate slot, the one everybody watching would have been ready for, Highguard was offered within the worst doable means: one more generic hero shooter that you need to drive your self to be excited for. Although Keighley launched the sport with remarks about its devs’ previous expertise making Titanfall, that wasn’t sufficient to maintain a really unhealthy style from staying in everybody’s mouth.
However let’s say that was a mistake (because the builders seem to consider, not solely as a result of it wasn’t an excellent trailer but in addition because of their not really desirous to be on the ultimate slot). What did the builders do afterward? Whole radio silence. Not a peep. In actual fact, many had genuinely forgotten that the sport was even popping out on the finish of January. From TGA to launch, Highguard vanished, as if it had fallen off a cliff.
The builders spent no time attempting to market the sport, noticed no level in partaking the unhealthy rep and attempting to show it round. They actually went offline and at some point mentioned, hey, our sport is right here. The philosophy behind that appears to be that the sport was imagined to “communicate for itself,” however I fail to grasp how anybody in 2026, of all years, might ever suppose {that a} product can attest its personal qualities with out being marketed correctly.
Nothing in our day and age can survive out there with out correct advertising. Hell, lots of the applied sciences and software program all of us use and buy at the moment are genuinely unhealthy merchandise, however the advertising retains us round and hooked.
Highguard, nevertheless good, was by no means going to beat the emotions it had garnered at TGA. The worst mistake of all was letting all of that foster, permitting it to develop and mature into one thing of epic proportions, which was at all times going to overshadow the sport, it doesn’t matter what. The builders had a myriad of various methods to keep away from this catastrophe: interact in selecting a correct TGA slot, present higher trailers post-TGA to dispel illusions and poor sentiments, interact the neighborhood on all of its factors, and so forth and so forth.
As a substitute, nothing. Not even a “thanks for caring sufficient for our sport to hate on it.”
By doing so, Highguard created an setting the place the sport itself turned a meme, a joke that was fashionable for individuals to bash and clown on. Many of the critiques on Steam (now Principally Unfavourable) come from individuals with lower than an hour within the sport. And what’s extra, Highguard gave them additional causes for these unfavourable critiques.
A horribly lengthy login queue on launch day smashed any repute it might have had proper then and there. Its efficiency isn’t nice, and its characters aren’t attention-grabbing sufficient to maintain individuals round. The selection of 3v3 because the default left loads of area and downtime within the sport, and lots of of its levels of gameplay appear to not have any actual affect on the match itself. It’s an unpolished expertise, one which, regardless that it has many nice qualities, was doomed from the beginning.
That is additional exacerbated by its competing with established, huge IPs like Overwatch and Marvel Rivals (and, to some extent, Impasse), all of which have one thing to supply, large character designs, and easy and enjoyable gameplay loops.
Highguard was in for a massacre, and I can not consider that the devs didn’t know that. With a lot expertise at AAA powerhouses like EA, I genuinely suppose they totally understood the implications of that TGA shenanigan, and can’t fathom why they by no means reacted.
This sport is a tragic sufferer of market whims and the way the gaming world operates at the moment, regardless of its goal flaws, which might have been amended post-launch anyhow. The worst half is that its builders definitely knew that was a risk, and didn’t put within the effort to mitigate it, even when the writing was on the wall in daring letters.
Shutting your self out and using it out labored for No Man’s Sky, however lightning not often strikes twice and being proactive at all times pays off extra.
