Highguard was announced as a major highlight at the Game Awards. Leading up to the release, there had been a long silence about the free shooter. Now the news comes that the game has to shut down just under 2 months after its release.
When will it happen? If you want to engage in disaster tourism one last time, you have until March 12, 2026. The servers of Highguard will be closed, which means from today (March 4, 2026) in about a week.
What is the reason given? The developers state that they were able to attract more than 2 million players to the world of Highguard. They are thankful for the feedback from players but must admit that they could not establish a healthy player base to support the game in the long run.
Is there compensation? Before the server shutdown, the developers will release one last update. It includes a new guardian, a new weapon, account level progression, and skill trees. The patch is expected to be released around this time.
Highguard was a misfire with a warning
How did it come to this? The traditionally last announcement at the Gamer Awards is actually reserved for the most promising video games. Accordingly, the expectations were high when this prominent spot was used for Highguard in 2025.
The major problem afterward: too little marketing. Players did not know what content to expect in Highguard until shortly before the release. The developers seemed to rely on the fact that players would look into the game out of curiosity anyway.
The numbers show: Shortly after release, there were about 97,000 players in the game within 24 hours (to read on SteamDB). However, these fans could not be retained. Currently, there are only 460 players within 24 hours.
What do the fans say about it? On Reddit, users are surprised at how quickly the end has come. Some wonder if Highguard is really that bad. After all, For Honor had a terrible start in 2017 as well, but the game is still running and receives regular updates and DLCs.
Furthermore, many are mocking the fact that Highguard was so prominently announced at the Game Awards only to fail so quickly. Users are posting many memes that will likely serve as fodder for failed games in the coming years.
The first signs appeared when the first developers started looking for new jobs. In line with this, there was even a statement from the development team. In mid-January, it was still stated that they did not intend to shut down the game. How quickly things can change: Highguard has only been out for 3 weeks, and the first developers are already looking for new jobs.
