Highguard Backlash

You know, it's often said that the internet remains undefeated. In most contexts, that is probably so. However, there are times where I hope it is defeated, this being one of them: the situation surrounding the recent announcement at the Game Awards for the video game, Highguard.

Highguard appears to be yet another free-to-play hero shooter in an immensely over-saturated market. That said, it was created by the developers of Titanfall and Apex Legends, two incredibly successful and praised shooters in the FPS gaming sphere. It would be one thing if the backlash was rooted in it being a potentially generic free-to-play hero shooter, however, it's not. The reasoning is actually far more weird and reductive than that.

The most heavily agreed upon reason for this game receiving backlash is that it was the final video game trailer announcement at the Game Awards. That is it. People are arguing that the host hyped the game up too much, and they're absolutely right. He did, but that's not the game's fault. Many of the people criticizing the developers’ vision have even stated that their opinions on the game would've been different if the game was advertised in the middle of the show versus at the end. Yet Highguard's reveal trailer on YouTube has been like/dislike ratio'd into Black Ops 7 Hell. The level of hate surrounding this game is beginning to feel forced.

Some people have also argued that the studio paid the Game Awards to feature their game's trailer at the end. Now, I don't know exactly how that works or how much that would cost. But what I do know is that while Wildlight Studios, the developer behind Highguard, is made up of former devs of Titanfall and Apex Legends, they are currently an independent studio in their infancy. This team is presenting their first foray into indie game development, so it's reasonable to assume that they don't have money like that. The most likely scenario is that the host of the Game Awards actually did see potential in this game and wanted to present it last intentionally. Was that the right call? Apparently not. Is that Wildlight Studios’ fault? More than likely, no. Yet, they're the ones paying the price for it.

Also, many of us gamers do this thing where when we see IPs like Titanfall or Apex Legends as part of a developer's marketing campaign, we sometimes incorrectly assume that we're getting Titanfall 3, or at least something Titanfall 3 adjacent. This, right here, is the second biggest reason Highguard is getting skewered. Because it's not Titanfall 3. Highguard didn't fail to meet a promise. It failed to deliver on a future that was never actually promised to us.

Maybe Highguard will be a failure. Maybe nobody will care about it three months after its release. You know what it's not, though? Concord. Why am I seeing everyone compare this game to Concord? It's absurd. Concord cost Sony half a billion dollars to make AND was being sold at a premium price of $40 before it completely flopped in the market. Highguard is being developed by an independent studio consisting of talented people behind some of the most celebrated shooters of this generation. This is on top of the fact that it's being released for free. These two situations are not even close to the same, yet practically every YouTube comment insists that this game is Concord 2.0. At a certain point, outrage around a thing drifts away from reason and reduces itself to performance.