The CEO and founder of Wildlight Entertainment has admitted during a recent interview that they hoped Highguard had been better received following its reveal at the climax of December’s The Game Awards in December 2025.
Speaking with PCGamer, Dusty Welch stated that the team could have produced a trailer that was better suited to showcasing Highguard’s unique gameplay loop, rather than focussing purely on something that was entertaining.
Look, I wish Highguard had been received better. I wish the feedback had been better. Part of that’s on us, right? We didn’t put our heads in the sand,. We, as a team, saw the feedback. We’re gamers ourselves. We’re online ourselves reading the feedback. I think, ultimately, we could have made a different trailer – a better trailer that wasn’t about entertaining, which is what we think [The Game Awards] was about. We could have made something that did a better job of highlighting the unique loop of the game. So that’s on us. We take that, but the team is resilient.
Welch also added that Geoff Keighley, host of The Game Awards, is a friend of the studio, and he was a big fan of Highguard after playing it a few times. However, Jason McCord, Design and Creative Director at Wildlight Entertainment, revealed that the lack of marking in the lead up to launch was a planned strategy.
“The plan was to announce, go dark, and then the next thing that we want players to see is the game,” said McCord. “If the reception had been totally different, it would have been the same plan. The key is, you’ve got to play the game.”
Highguard is now available for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S.
[Source – PCGamer via GamesIndustry.biz]