Former Highguard developer, Josh Sobel, who was impacted by Wildlight Entertainment’s layoffs, has spoken up and lashed out against those who preyed on the game’s downfall from the moment it was revealed.
Highguard’s reveal as the closing surprise of the 2025 Game Awards immediately landed it in hot water, as thousands bashed its placement in the show. In the weeks that followed, devs remained silent as consternation grew.
Upon its release, Highguard was review bombed and its player count dwindled in mere hours. Two weeks later, creators Wildlight Entertainment announced company-wide layoffs, leaving just a skeleton crew to continue updating the free-to-play Raid-Shooter.
Now, in the wake of being laid off soon after launch, devs are speaking up across social media. One particular dev, went into a bit more detail, however, and cast a portion of the blame at “gamer culture.”
Former Highguard dev calls out “gamer culture”
Josh Sobel, a Tech Artist who previously spent a year at Disney and two years at DreamWorks, went into detail on his experience shipping Highguard, his first game. He joined Wildlight almost three years ago.
“The future seemed bright,” he said at the top, outlining how many on the team, given its stature as an independent studio, thought this project could “finally be the thing that broke the millennial financial curse.
“But then the trailer came out and it was all downhill from there,” he said.
Criticism started right away, as has been well documented, though Sobel explained he “personally came under fire” for his association with Highguard as well. Largely, it allegedly stemmed from his enthusiasm, simply being proud of the project he’d poured the last few years into.
“They laughed at me… told me to get out the McDonald’s applications, and mocked me for listing having autism in my bio. All of this was very emotionally taxing.”
From the moment the game was revealed, a moment that should have been a positive one for the team involved, they were fiughting an uphill battle, and as Sobel argued, much of it had to do with “false assumptions.”
After The Game Awards, a popular argument on social media was that Wildlight had paid Geoff Keighley a hefty sum to reserve the final spot on his annual showcase. It’s been proven that wasn’t the case, but nonetheless, the argument still gained traction.
“Within minutes, it was decided: This game was dead on arrival,” as Sobel put it.
“At launch, we received over 14k review bombs from users with less than an hour of playtime. Many didn’t even finish the required tutorial.”
Ultimately, he admitted there was room for constructive criticism and that Highguard wasn’t perfect on day one, but he stressed that gamers do wield a great degree of power, and that said power can be partially blamed for its downfall.
“I’m not saying our failure is purely the fault of gamer culture and that the game would have thrived without the negative discourse, but it absolutely played a role.
“Even if Highguard had a rocky launch, our independent, self-published, dev-led studio full of passionate people just trying to make a fun game, with zero AI, and zero corporate oversight…deserved better than this. We deserved the bare minimum of not having our downfall be gleefully manifested.”