Wildlight Leisure, the studio behind the brand new not-hero shooter Highguard, has reportedly laid off “most” of its crew simply weeks after the sport launched on January 26.
Stage designer Alex Graner posted concerning the information on his LinkedIn account, saying he’s on the lookout for no matter’s subsequent after he and an unknown variety of his fellow staff have been let go. Kotaku has reached out to Wildlight for remark and can replace the story if we hear again.
Sadly, together with a lot of the crew at Wildlight, I used to be laid off right now.
This one actually stings as there was numerous unreleased content material I used to be actually wanting ahead to that I and others designed for Highguard.
Nonetheless, I’m excited for my subsequent journey. In case your crew or anybody you already know wants an skilled Stage Designer, hit me up!
Highguard was introduced in December throughout the 2025 Sport Awards, and it didn’t go over very nicely with some sides of the web. Then the crew at Wildlight went radio silent for weeks till the sport lastly launched on the finish of January and press and content material creators acquired hands-on time with the sport. The response to the ultimate sport was a bit lukewarm, although Wildlight was fast to answer suggestions concerning the sport’s small 3v3 crew compositions by including a 5v5 mode throughout the first week.
Although the sport appeared to wrestle by way of concurrent gamers, director and studio head Chad Grenier stated in an interview with Polygon that the crew was much less involved with participant counts than it was with making one thing its participant base loved. “Whether or not it will get a thousand folks or 100 million folks, it doesn’t matter,” he stated. “What issues most is that the sport is liked by the individuals who performed it.”
Replace 2/11/2026, 7:39 p.m. ET: Increasingly more builders are talking publicly concerning the layoffs, reiterating that a lot of the studio appears to have been impacted.
Immediately I used to be laid off from Wildlight together with a lot of the workers. It was the most effective crew I’ve ever labored with, and I’ve by no means put a lot of myself right into a mission earlier than. I would not commerce the previous 2.5+ yrs for something. I am nonetheless spinning, and will not be in a spot to start out pondering… pic.twitter.com/AimTVwrJ7N
— Josh Sobel (@Joshiepoo25) February 11, 2026
Replace 2/11/2026, 7:52 p.m. ET: Wildlight supplied the next assertion:
“Immediately we made an extremely troublesome determination to half methods with various our crew members whereas conserving a core group of builders to proceed innovating on and supporting the sport.
We’re pleased with the crew, expertise, and the product we’ve created collectively. We’re additionally grateful for gamers who gave the sport a shot, and people who proceed to be part of our neighborhood.”
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