While there's still a few developers working on the game, and a few people playing it every day, it's hard to say that Highguard is flourishing. After the briefest of highs, the game has endured a lot of lows in its weeks since launch, and former senior level designer at Wildlight Entertainment Alex Graner believes he knows why.
Speaking on the Quad Damage podcast recently (via PCGamesN), Graner explained he never liked the competitive approach of Highguard's main loop. "You don't strive to create something that doesn't work out, but it happens, unfortunately. Throughout development, we really leaned into the competitive side of it, and that was always one of my biggest fears as a player," Graner said.
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"Highguard's biggest issue was just that it leaned too far into the competitive scene. That was always my biggest fear when we decided to go full-in on 3v3," he continued. "3v3 duos is always the sweatiest version of anything like battle royale, objective modes, wingman, you know it, you name it. It requires such a high intensity of communication with your team, and team play, that it doesn't leave much room for casualness. I think that was the biggest thing that turned a lot of players off Highguard."
It was telling that as soon as Highguard launched players wanted the game to shift to 5v5 rather than continue at 3v3. Sadly, first impressions are usually a game's last these days, especially for a live-service shooter that needs people to stick with it from day one. We'd hope that Highguard's flop will be a lesson learned about live-service goals, but it won't be.