“There’s No Way This Will Flop”: Highguard Developer Recalls High Internal Hype Before Trailer Backfire

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“However, once the trailer premiered, the momentum shifted,” Sobel explains. Following the spotlight at The Game Awards, a wave of immediate hostility emerged, with “hundreds of angry players” flooding Sobel’s personal social media and the official game channels with vitriolic comments.

Sobel was eventually forced to privatize his social media accounts for his mental well-being, only to be mocked by content creators who interpreted his retreat as “cowardice.” Detractors scrutinized his personal bio, using his mention of autism as a pretext to dismiss the game as “woke trash.” Sobel admits that this targeted campaign was emotionally draining for the entire development team.

While acknowledging that Highguard’s marketing and launch strategy were open to valid criticism, Sobel wonders if the game would have fared better without the sudden, polarized exposure from its major trailer debut.

Wildlight CEO Dusty Welch also admitted he is re-evaluating the studio’s decision to move away from a “shadow drop” strategy—a move that successfully launched Apex Legends, where many Wildlight veterans originally built their reputations.

Sobel argues that while Highguard faced an uphill battle in the competitive PvP market, the preemptive negativity blunted its potential. He expressed concern that a culture finding joy in a game’s failure could lead to long-term stagnation in the multiplayer space.

“I’m not suggesting that our difficulties were solely due to toxic gaming culture, but it certainly played a role,” he stated. “When consumers invest significant effort into slandering a project, it has an impact. If this continues, only massive corporations will survive in this space, and innovation will suffer.”

In his final thoughts, Sobel extended his best wishes to those remaining at Wildlight, emphasizing that an independent, dev-led studio that avoided AI and corporate oversight deserved a more respectful reception. “We at least deserved to not have our downfall celebrated so gleefully,” he concluded.

In our own Highguard review, we gave the game 3/5 stars, describing it as an innovative yet unrefined genre mashup in need of further development.

Separately, the publishing director for Baldur’s Gate 3 argued that industry events like The Game Awards are not to blame for the studio’s layoffs, suggesting that critics of such events often lack a deep understanding of industry mechanics.

 

Source: gamesradar.com